Child Engineering 101

Aaron

2011-12-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

Aaron continually amazes me. Yesterday at breakfast, Audrey was eating 3 kinds of cereal mixed together (Heart 2 Heart, a cereal we call hexagons, and Puffins). Aaron told her "You have 2 squared minus 1 kinds!"

Today at breakfast, out of the blue, Aaron asked, "Are there 3 kinds of 2's?" I thought he meant ways to draw 2 because we'd been learning about Roman numerals and looking at two ways to write an Arabic 2. But when I asked what he meant, he said "There's the number two, T-O and T-O-O." I was surprised he'd noticed, but also surpised he brought it up when he wasn't looking at books.

Math brain

2011-12-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned before that Aaron likes math. He loves numbers. This extends to an obsession with time, including clocks, timers and calendars. He's known the days of the week and the months of the year for awhile now. He's been able to read an analog clock since he was 3 1/2. He can even convert 24h time to 12h time.

For a long time, he's been pointing out when the digital clock on the cable box shows a pattern. At 1:41 or 3:23 or 7:47 he'll shout the time followed by "It's a pattern!" (And then wait for me to acknowledge this all important fact.)

More recently, he pointed out when it was 6:36 that it was a pattern and a square. I thought he meant that 636 was a square number, but he meant that 36 is 6 squared. A few days ago, he pointed out that 5:25 and 1:01 were similar. I said, what about 4:16? He said, it's not a pattern.

So he decided that times that represent a number and that numbered squared, like 4:16, are called ki-NAY-zures. (I'm not sure on the spelling, but that's how he pronounced it.) But times that represent a number and the number squared that are also patterns, like 6:36 and 5:25, are called CUL-i-nay-zures.

He also pointed out that 8:64 would be a ki-NAY-zure, but that it is really 9:04.

I love how his mind works. Now I just wish he didn't melt down every time his sister touched the calculator. He's been squentially squaring numbers starting with 1 and he's into the 1000s now. He doesn't like her to mess it up (since it remembers where he left off).

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Thom and Aaron planted heirloom pumpkin seeds this summer and put the seedlings down in the orchard. In no time at all, we had a large pumpkin patch. The kids loved to go see their pumpkins. This weekend, some of the pumpkins were ready to harvest.

On the way to harvest pumpkins

These pumpkins are now sitting outside our front door

The pumpkin patch mid-September

Also mid-September

It was amazing how quickly the little pumpkin seedlings turned into what you see in the last two photos. This was about 6 pumpkin plants. Altogether we got 11 mature pumpkins. We lost one big one and another small one to some kind of fungus, but the rest avoided it. We'll save some seeds from this year's crop and do it again next year.

Raise your hand

2011-10-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Kim has been working with Audrey on raising her hand. It's something that the kids do at some of the preschool groups they go to. So for example, when they are playing storytime at home, she'll say "Raise your hand if you want Aaron to read another story." And Audrey will raise her hand. This is something new just in the last couple of weeks. Kim worked hard to get her to this point.

Today when they were out, Kim said "Raise your hand if you want a sandwich." And Audrey raised two hands and said "I raised two hands. I want two sandwiches!"

Later, when they came home, I was eating chips and 5 layer dip. Audrey kept asking for a chip and I kept giving little chips to her. But one time, she came over and said "Raise your hand if you want another chip." And then she raised her hand high and kept telling me that she wanted a chip. It took me a minute to give her one because I was laughing so hard.

Audrey turns 2!

2011-09-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here's Audrey at her 2 year checkup. She loved her little gown. At 23 lbs she has stayed at 8th percentile for weight. She's around 15th percentile for height at 32.25". She got her last Hep B shot that day and a flu shot. She didn't cry for the first shot, but she did for the second one. She quieted down pretty quick, though.

Aaron came along to get his 4 year booster shots that we didn't get at his checkup because he'd had a fever close enough to the appointment that they wanted to wait. And eventually I had waited so long, I just took him in with Audrey. He also got his flu shot. So those are out of the way. This was the first time Aaron got shots in his arm. The arm with the TDap swelled up and was sore, which is common on the 4th and 5th doses. I remember getting one after Audrey was born since whooping cough is making a come back in California and my arm was sore for several days. Aaron complained about it, but without as much drama as I might have expected. He just didn't want me to touch his arm or to hug him because he said it was sore. But he hugged me carefully instead. Unfortunately, I'm reading that whooping cough immunity seems to wane after only 3 years, so unless they come out with a new vaccine, I'm wondering if boosters will become a regular event. It is combined with the tetanus, which is supposed to be every 5-10 years anyway.

Audrey's birthday turned into birthday week. She got a present from her nanny the Thursday before (bean bags and a board to throw then through). Then a present from us on her birthday (a wooden tea set). A present from her sitter on Sunday (a doll stroller), followed in a few days by a present from Aunt Janine (a bouncy horse) and finally a delayed present from us (a parking garage) which arrived late. She loves all her gifts and she and Aaron fight over them. Except the bouncy horse which Aaron is afraid he will pop. Here is a video of Audrey the first time she got on her "bouncy". I took it with my phone and can't figure out how to rotate it 90 degrees, but you can still get the idea.

The stroller is one of the most contentious toys. We have two wagons which I always thought could be strollers with a bit of imagination. But nothing compares to a real doll stroller and they both want to push it around. Aaron usually crashes it or gets in the way when Audrey wants to push it. It's a constant battle.

At 2, Audrey is quite a character. She is a very happy, mischievous little being and full of drama if she doesn't get what she wants. She seems to have mastered making her eyes well up with tears with her lips pouting if she hears the word "no". Or "not now", or "after you eat your breakfast". But she is so happy and excited when she announces she wants Autumn Wheat for breakfast. In a bowl. With milk on it. And a spoon! Oh the joys of breakfast. Unless she sees her blue kitty sitting around and wants her blue kitty and you tell her "after you eat your breakfast." (And you have to say "after you eat your breakfast" rather than "when you are finished" because with the latter, she will immediately announce "All done!" with a bowl nearly full of breakfast.)

Speaking of which, her blue kitty is currently her favorite "buddy" (as we call the kids stuffed animals). She gets it up with her every day and carries it around and puts it in the doll stroller with Pink Rosie. Sometimes she loves Mouse more (which is really a bunny), but usually it is kitty these days. She'll be playing Duplos one handed with her other arm wrapped firmly around blue kitty's neck. It's interesting to see because Aaron never had that kind of attachment to a toy. With Audrey, it's not that specific toy so much as it's the fact that she wants to be holding something close most of the time. It's only been blue kitty for a couple of weeks, but before that it was something else.

She has quite a vocabulary. She is stringing words into longer and longer sentences and getting more specific about things. Yesterday it was not just raining. It was "The rain drops on the patio." I don't remember the sentence, but the other day she said something at least 7 words long. I wrote before that at 18 months she had about as many words as Aaron did at 2 years and she has continued to improve her vocabulary every day.

Like Aaron (and their mom), she loves books. She likes to page through them. Both at home and at the library. Below, I had started to stack books we might take home on a table. Audrey sat down and starting paging through them. She pretends to read them. If she knows the title of the book, she'll repeat that for each page. It's adorable.

She is continuing to improve in the potty training department. More and more often she poops on the potty, but 40% of the time it's still in her diaper. Since she turned 2, I've been making more of an effort to put her on the potty periodically and soon plan to switch over to pull-ups more consistently since I think that will encourage her to go. And because diapers are a hassle on someone who wants to use the potty more often.

And now she is awake from nap. She usually naps from 1-3pm every day. Sometimes longer, sometimes a little shorter. But I'd better go get her.

Naptime

2011-08-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

So I guess Aaron has hit that inevitable stage of not taking naps every day. I'm determined that he has at least quiet time in his room at naptime until he starts Kindergarten. But since he tends to melt down more on days he doesn't nap, I'm not ready to give up naps completely. So I've been experimenting to see what works.

He had gotten to the point where he was only going to sleep at naptime 2-3 times a week. On days he didn't sleep, he would be noisy enough I'd have to go in a few times. I tried rewarding him when I didn't have to go in (with an unspecified "special treat" after naptime). I tried punishing him if I did have to go in (taking away buddies and losing bedtime stories). But it wasn't working. He was also starting to have to go #2 during naptime, so he'd make noise until I came down to his room and then he'd tell me he had to go. He used to go before naptime like clockwork, but before naptime, he'd say he didn't have to go and wouldn't go despite sitting on the potty before naptime. Since I work while the kids nap, his interruptions were becoming a problem.

First, we tried allowing him quiet time in his room until 1:30pm. At 1:30, he needed to stop playing and get in bed. This worked well for a couple of days. But then he started getting too many toys out and couldn't relax in bed at 1:30 because he felt like he had to clean up. After catching him out of bed on two occasions after 1:30, we cut out the quiet time privilege. But we went back to the same problems as before.

So starting last week, I implemented a suggestion from our nanny. If he takes a good nap one day, meaning even if he doesn't actually sleep, he is quiet and doesn't have to come out to go potty, then he earns quiet time the next day. But quiet time now is from 1-3pm. This way he doesn't have to worry about cleaning up and getting into bed. If he's not quiet during quiet time and I have to come in, he's done with quiet time and has to get in bed. Even if he has a good quiet time (and so far he always has), the next day is still a nap day. So at most he can have quiet time every other day. That hasn't happened yet. In the 10 days since we've started this, he's had 2 bad nap days where he didn't earn quiet time the next day. In fact, one day he even woke Audrey up an hour early. But the days after a bad nap day, he had good naps, even if he didn't sleep. So I know he can be quiet.

On quiet time days, he can take books into his room and I leave his closet doors unlocked and open. He usually takes beginner reader books with him and I'll hear him reading them at the start of nap time (talking quietly is OK, just not loud banging or yelling). At 3pm when he opens his door, I can see what he's done during nap time. Typically, he'll have gotten out all the wooden letter blocks and organized them by letter. He has some sight words in a little box and he'll have those out and lined up on the floor. He has fraction cards with little fraction pie pieces from 1 whole to twelfths (excluding 7ths 9ths and 11ths) and he'll have those out. He has cuisinaire rods which he'll have out and sorted by color, lined up on the ground. So there is a lot of stuff out on the floor, but it is all sorted and organized. He's in an organizational phase lately.

The whole band

2011-08-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Aaron and Audrey perform a duet. Sort of.

My little musician

2011-08-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Do-Re-Mi like you've never heard it.

Audrey

2011-08-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Audrey reading a book to her doll.

Preschool

2011-08-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Some photos from our preschool lesson today. Our theme was the sun and we also talked about the color yellow and circles.

Gettin' some love

2011-08-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Every morning either before the kids leave with Kim or before Thom goes to work (if he leaves before them), the kids give Papa some love. Love involves hugs, nose kisses (aka eskimo kisses) and kisses. And sometimes more hugs.

Eating oatmeal with Papa

2011-08-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Thom shares his banaba blueberry oatmeal with Audrey.

Reading

2011-08-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

Kim takes Aaron to storytime at our local Barnes & Noble and one day they picked up a form for their summer reading program. Kids read 8 books, record them on the form and then they get a free book (one of about 18 pre-selected children's books). They had picked up the form last month and then we'd forgotten about it and lost the form. But last weekend, Aaron suddenly remembered and when they went last week, they picked up another form.

That was Thursday. On Friday, Aaron was so excited, he read 2 books to me before we did preschool at 10am. I wrote them on the form for him. He was so excited. He carried his entry form around all morning, showing it to the kids and moms who came over for preschool. He carried it outside when we went to look at trees (our preschool theme). The form was getting pretty wrinkled.

After nap time, he read a few more. He did a great job of picking out books that he could read almost all on his own. Mostly board books, but not all. Sometimes he needed help with words. He wanted to keep reading but we had to go to the grocery story. We actually had to fight with him over it. When we left for the store, he had 3 books to go. He read 2 more to me after we got back while I prepared dinner. Then he read the last one at storytime before bed.

There was another storytime at B&N on Saturday so I decided to take him to reward him for doing such a great job reading all 8 books in one day. But first I made a photcopy of the filled in book journal because he seemed so proud of it and I knew we'd have to hand it in. The woman at B&N who does storytime on Saturday was the same one who does it on Thursdays so she knows Aaron well. (We'd also been the previous Saturday.) He was excited to show her the list and then she showed him the display of books from which he could choose.

He picked one called Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig. (Mercy actually is a pig). The story is just OK in my opinion, but Aaron loves that book. It's his free book that he got for reading 8 books. It has 15 chapters (about 3 pages each with pictures). He's so excited that it has chapters and that it has 15 of them. If you forget to say the chapter and number when you are reading, he'll remind you. He has been carrying his book around. Yesterday we even took it to the library to show our friends we were meeting there.

This is the most excited Aaron has been about reading books. We have 3 different library systems near us and they all have summer reading programs. Even though they only award small prizes and not books, I thought about signing him up. But sadly one just ended and the others end very early August so I don't think we'll get signed up in time. As a lover of books and avid reader, I couldn't be more proud of him. I hope he continues to love reading.

July

2011-07-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

First attempt at ponytails

Aaron playing chess with Grandpa

OK, I guess I'm long overdue for an update.

Audrey

Audrey's hair is now long enough for ponytails. The first time I tried it (pictured above) she wanted them out within 5 minutes. Now she asks for them in the morning. As soon as I'm done, she runs to the mirror and looks at herself.

She's very particular about what she wears, too. Or at least about having control over what she wears. It's very hard to pick something out for her anymore. She's just as happy picking out drab hand-me-downs from Aaron as she is about picking out girly hand-me-downs from family and friends. And she loves shoes, but isn't specific about whose. She sees shoes, she wants to wear them and walk around.

She is also obsessed with books! That's my girl. She piles up a stack of books and sits on the floor in the play area and goes through the books by herself. If she knows the title, (like one called Wow! Babies!), she will repeat the title as she pages through the books. "Wow babies." Turn page. "Wow babies". Turn page. "Wow babies." This is more likely when I'm not in the room or in the afternoon after nap time. First thing in the morning, she tries to get me to read to her.

She's teething all the time. She's got the top 4 front teeth and the bottom 4 front teeth. But next to those she has spaces followed by molars (so 4 molars total). The spaces are starting to fill in. Her favorite thing to alleviate teething pain is to chew on a wet washcloth. She calls it a "chew". She goes to the bathroom where we keep a basket of kids washcloths, pulls one out and climbs up on the step stool to try to get it wet. I try to intervene so that she only gets a corner of it wet. Then she'll go play with it hanging out of her mouth. We find old chews on the floor all the time. She tends to go through a couple a day if we don't manage to stop her.

Aaron

Aaron is such a big boy now. He's reading pretty consistently. If you remember, he read his first simple book just before turning 3. We'd try to get him to read words here and there at story time before bed, but he more often than not didn't want to and we didn't push it. But sometime after turning 4, he started reading parts of the stories and then picking out beginner books that he could read. Some nights he has read all of his bedtime stories. When we are out, he'll point out words on signs. With his penchant for numbers, he enjoys reading exit signs on the freeway. "There's Exit 18, Mama!"

He still loves music, too. There is a folk group that we catch once a month when they play in the morning. They have guitars, a stand-up bass (his favorite), a mandolin (his other favorite) and sometimes a banjo or other instruments. And there is another band that plays at coffee houses in the afternoons that we are usually able to catch once a month. They have a CD and we now own two copies. I bought the first copy after we saw them the second time. I enjoy their music as much as Aaron. Then the 3rd time we saw them, a couple was watching them for the first time and were so enthralled by how interested Aaron was in the music, they bought him a copy. (I think the fact that Aaron requested a song by name impressed them, too. It's instrumental music - no lyrics.) The back of the CD case lists the tracks and the time of each track and Aaron quickly memorized that info. He knows how many minutes and seconds each song is and what the track number is. That kid likes numbers.

I've been doing an hour long preschool program with Aaron and including other kids. At first a friend and I were doing it at our houses on my morning off or in the afternoon, but then her parents paid for her older son to go to preschool twice a week and she's having baby #3 next month so we gradually lost momentum. But Aaron really enjoyed it. He started drawing with crayons more, something he never really wanted to do. And he started trying to write numbers and letters. And he'd ask about preschool when we didn't do it. So this summer, I started doing it on my own. I tried doing it at a park, but there were a lot of little bugs that annoyed Aaron, so now we are doing it at home. We've had different friends join us each week. There's too much going on in the summer for the other kids. But I'm hoping we find a few families that want to join us consistently. I'd like to keep this up until he goes to Kindergarten next year. And at that point, I hope Audrey is enjoying it and I will keep doing it with her. Right now, she listens to the story and colors during the craft project, but mostly she kind of wanders around and plays with stuff.

Oh, I taught Aaron how to play chess a couple of months ago. I set up the chess board after nap time one day and told him the names of all the pieces and how they moved. An hour or so later when I was making dinner, he wanted to play again. I said I couldn't right then, but maybe later. While I was in the kitchen, he set all the chess pieces back in the correct place. He seems to like the game, but doesn't have any strategy. And by that, I mean he doesn't try to get his opponent's pieces. He just likes to move the pieces. I tried to take him to chess club at the library a couple of times, but he's not quite ready. They expect kids to play quietly and focus on the game and at 4, Aaron's not ready to do that. I thought it would help him learn the game. So for now, we just play at home sometimes.

Or at my parents house. As you see in the picture up above, my parents have this awesome chess set with oversize pieces. My mom made the ceramic pieces about 40 years ago when we lived in Ohio but had never finished them. My dad came across them in their shed a month or so ago. They had them fired and my dad built a custom chess board for them. Aaron loved it. The hard part was keeping Audrey away from the pieces.

Piano!

2011-05-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

We've been thinking about getting an electric piano for a long time. Aaron showed an early interest in music and instruments and I played piano growing up. We have a keyboard the kids have been playing with, and although it was a nice keyboard, it wasn't a full 88 keys and we didn't have a frame and seat for it, so I rarely played it. Thom found a nice Casio piano online which we just set up yesterday. It sounds great and both the kids love it. I've even gotten a chance to play it. And a nice feature is the ability to use headphones with it since my best time to get on there is when the kids are asleep.

I have some of the books I had when I was in lessons as a kid and I play to start teaching Aaron. He puts a book of music on the piano and pretends he's playing it. So far he can find middle C (on the piano, not the notation for it) and he recognizes a treble clef and bass clef on sheet music.

Aaron turns 4!

2011-05-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

Aaron turned 4 last month. We didn't do a party this year, but there were many celebrations. We went out to lunch the day before his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa. On his birthday we took him out to lunch at In N Out Burger, which was his choice. We surprised him by inviting another family to join us, our friends Mark and Jill and their two kids. And we brought a trifle cake from home.

And that afternoon, I took him to see a local band he enjoys that was playing at a coffee shop. And best of all, that evening, Auntie Lia and Uncle George joined us for dinner. Auntie Lia cut Aaron's hair and Audrey's bangs. Auntie Lia had come and cut Aaron's hair a while back and Aaron said several times that he wanted her to come back and cut his hair on his birthday. And she was happy to oblige. He had a great birthday weekend.

A few weeks after his birthday, we had his 4 year checkup. He was a little over 40 lbs and a little over 40". He didn't get his booster shots that day because he'd been having a fever. He had a fever for 5 days for no apparent reason. Mostly just in the afternoons. In the mornings, it was generally between 99-100, but it would shoot up over 101 in the afternoons. One day it went up so fast, by the time I was ready to give him Tylenol it was over 104 (I wanted to give it to him over 103 but missed it). I had to force him to take the Tylenol even with a bribe of cookies, but after a dose and a cool bath, his fever was down under 102. It was apparently some unnamed virus and other than a slightly runny nose and being more tired than usual, he seemed perfectly fine.

At four, Aaron is reading more regularly, pointing out words when we are out and about. He often reads one of his bedtime stories now. Also, since his pullups have been dry in the morning, he now has the option to wear underwear at night. So far he's been going back and forth between pullups and underwear. He only had one accident and that was when he had the fever. Around the time of the fever there were a few nights when he woke up to pee, but other than that time, he's pretty much sleeping through the night.

Another big change happened around the time he turned 4. For about 3 years, he had oatmeal for breakfast every morning. Usually with a banana, sometimes with blueberries. But for weeks he was eating really slow and goofing off with his sister at breakfast instead of eating. It was an hour long battle to get him to finish his oatmeal that he used to eat willingly. Finally we decided to stop doing oatmeal. Now he eats cereal with milk, picking out a different cereal each morning. Sometimes shredded wheat squares (Autumn Wheat), sometimes Kashi's Heart to Heart, or Puffins. And he eats it quickly, without us having to remind him to eat his breakfast. The end of oatmeal in the mornings felt like the end of an era in our household. I thought he'd eat oatmeal every day until he left for college.

For some reason, we've been having more melt-downs and time-outs with him. Baths and hair washing have become a struggle with him and he often doesn't listen to us. He's always been a rule follower so we've had it pretty easy. But suddenly he's trying to circumvent the rules or outright lies to us. Or he'll pull an Oliver North and say he can't remember if he hit his sister - 2 seconds after it happened.

Despite some of the problems of acting out with his sister, he is actually a very good brother. He often asks her questions (like "Is it Monday, Audrey?") and then tells her the answer if she doesn't know. Or he'll tell her things (like "Look, Audrey, there's a bunny.") I think it helps her to learn. And he also tries to distract her with a change in conversation when she's crying or upset. Sometimes it gets annoying because she'll be crying and he's yelling over her trying to cheer her up, but it's very sweet.

Audrey at 18 months

2011-03-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

Wow. So Audrey is 18 months now. Closer to 19 months, really. And she is finally sleeping through the night. The last 4 nights she has gone down between 7:30 and 8:00pm and sleeps past 7am in the morning. Just a month ago she was waking up 3 times a night and sometimes keeping me up for an hour or more. I was going crazy. It's only been 4 nights, but it feels much longer. It feels like a new era. I knew for a long time that I was doing all the wrong things to get her to sleep better, but she's so little and still seemed like our baby so letting her cry for long stretches was too much for me. Ultimately, we found a way that wasn't too painful for anyone. It actually happened much faster than I expected.

And now that she is sleeping well (she is also down to one approx 2 hour nap a day) she is nursing less. After I cut out the night-time feedings (within the last month), I still nursed her when she got up in the morning. But now we don't do that, either, since she stopped asking. She usually still wants to nurse in the afternoon and before bed, but I think those will gradually go away now.

And because she is nursing less, she is eating more. She now eats the same oatmeal Aaron has for breakfast, although only a tiny fraction. This is a big improvement over the first time I introduced oatmeal to her and she gagged on it. She used to only eat crunchy snacks - cereal, crackers, chips, freeze dried fruit. But she is gradually eating more and more. Including yogurt, sandwiches, grapes, apple slices, cheese. Stuff seems to taste better to her if it comes from Aaron's plate/bowl.

At her 18 month checkup, she weighed just 20 lbs 8 oz. 20 lbs is the minimum to put her in a forward facing car seat, but the new recommendations are to keep them rear-facing until 2 years, so we will probably do that. She was down to the 5th percentile for weight. The pediatrician didn't seem too concerned since she is otherwise healthy and weight gain tends to slow down at this age.

Since she said her first word at 9 months, she was definitely ahead of Aaron on vocabularly. I kept a spreadsheet list of the words Aaron knew at 2 years (a partial list is here). I opened it up and created a new sheet with Audrey's words by 18 months. Both lists were just under 180 words, but given that I forgot some, I'd say Aaron had about 200 words at age 2 and Audrey had about the same at 18 months. Makes sense since she started talking 6 months sooner than he did. Here is Audrey's list of words (she's added many, many more in the weeks since she turned 18 months - it's scary how fast she picks up new words):

hi

baby
Papa
Mama
Grandma
brother
Aaron
Audrey
Kim
Madeleine
boy
girl
ball
chicken
buddies
doggie
puppy
kitty
pig
sheep
horse
cow
bear
bunny
rhino
giraffe
duck
bird
monkey
penguin
alien
hat
shirt
sock
shoes
jammies
pants
jacket
hood
button
zipper
car
truck
train
star
bye
please
help
hug
kiss
yeah
ok
no
yeah
play
sit
off
done
go
more
again
away
table
door
paper
phone
book
hamper
cup
bowl
plate
milk
juice
food
waffle
grapes
apple
orange
pear
carrot
pea
green bean
cheese
chip
cracker
pretzel
bread
joe's o's
turkey
pizza
pasta
fun
open
up
down
in
out
buckle
cold
hot
on
off
clap
poop
pee
toot
bath
potty
flush
eye
nose
face
hair
ears
mouth
tongue
cheek
belly button
teeth
toes
arm
leg
hand
finger
foot
knee
head
tummy
neck
necklace
color
blue
pink
purple
red
two
nine
wagon
sack
bubble
night night
pillow
wet
water
walk
piano
guitar
drum
clock
move
crib
bed
chair
hop hop
cute
mirror
comb
dry
boogies
lap
tower
couch
push
dirty
clean
blanket
flower
timer
bow
work
home
this
that
drawer
clip
cupboard
did it
job (as in good job)
earthquake

(Earthquake is a game I play with her. She doesn't know the real meaning.)

Although she says a few colors, she doesn't really seem to know which colors are which yet. She also knows more instrument words than Aaron did at 2 since she picks them up from him. As far as speech goes, she's been pretty stereotypical for a girl, I guess, speaking much earlier than Aaron. She is not quite stringing words into sentences, but she is close. She'll say things like "Papa. Work." Meaning: I don't see Papa. He must be at work.

She is also trying to potty train. She's not really ready in my opinion, but I don't want to discourage her. She knows when she has to go and I'll put her on the potty. A little more than 50% of the time she will pee when I put her on. There have been mornings where her diaper or pullup (I alternate between them) stays dry because she is telling me she needs to go potty and waiting to be put on the toilet. She can't quite get her pants down by herself and she's too small to get on the potty by herself, but she is so interested in doing it. She cries if I don't let her have some toilet paper (which she doesn't get unless she really goes potty). And she loves trying to flush the potty and then climbs up the step stool to wash her paws. She wants to be just like big brother.

I'll try to post an update on Aaron soon. I can't believe he is almost 4.

15 Months

2010-12-13T14:32:00.000-08:00

Audrey turned 15 months on Friday. We haven't had her 15 month checkup so I don't have her stats yet, but I wanted to jot down a few of her accomplishments at 15 months before I forget.

Aaron's first word - Mama - was on his 15 month birthday so it is interesting to see how many words Audrey has at 15 months. Her first word was "Hi" and her most recent word that I can recall is "mouth". Here is list of words I have heard her use correctly more than a few times. She often will repeat a word after I say it but won't say it again and I haven't included those here.

hi
baby
bye-bye (usually said after the person has walked away)
mama (generally repeated multiple times in increasing intensity)
papa (usually whispered as if in awe)
more (accompanied by the sign for more for added emphasis)
uppa (for up - we taught her Aaron's original version of this word)
hop-hop (for the motion as well as bunny crackers)
Babu (Aaron's early nickname for Larissa which we taught Audrey)
bear
gate
boop (what you say when you touch someone's nose)
beep (what you say when you pinch your nose between your thumb and forefinger)
cheese
milk
doggy
eye
ear
mouth
hat

I think she has a few other unintelligible words including something that is supposed to be 'brother'. The phrase "I nee" is repeated loudly and with great emphasis to indicate she wants something to which she is pointing. She also calls the wagon "oggy" although I have no idea why. It's usually when she sees it and she'll yell "Oggy! Oggy! Oggy!" because she wants to push it around. And although not technically a word, if you ask her what a sheep says, she'll say "Baa". Cows say "mmmm". And lions, tigers (including Tigger), and bears elicit a growl. Oddly, 'no' is not a part of her vocabulary yet, although she has started to shake her head when I offer her something to eat that she doesn't want.

Oh, that's another thing. Some time between 14 and 15 months, Audrey started to walk. It was a gradual process and unlike when Aaron learned to walk, it is hard to pinpoint when she truly started to walk. At first Madeleine and Larissa said she had taken a few steps on their watch. But it was another week before I saw it. At that point I didn't consider it walking. But now she can take a couple of dozen steps without falling. And when she does fall, she can push herself back up to a stand without using any objects. She seems to walk best when she has something in each hand.

Whereas Aaron seemed content to wait and watch and try things when he could master them (like walking and talking), Audrey wants to do everything now. Aaron would go from not doing something to doing it well in a short amount of time (like potty training which he did VERY late, but mastered within a week). When Aaron learned a word, you understood it when he started using it. With Audrey, she says words for awhile before I catch on because they are often garbled. She tries to climb on anything she can and especially enjoys trying to climb into Aaron's bed. She can't, but she won't stop trying.

Audrey is also into clothes. When she finds her shoes (or someone else's) she wants us to put them on her. She'll take clothes (or ribbon) and drape them on her like she is trying to put them on. She LOVES Aaron's underwear. When she is helping me with the laundry by handing me the clean clothes from the laundry basket, she doesn't pass on Aaron's underwear without trying to put it on her head. And if I tell her it doesn't go on her head, she puts her arm through the leg hole and smiles at me proudly.

Overall, at 15 months, Audrey is a happy girl who adores her big brother. She is very inquisitive, easily frustrated (when she doesn't get her way), but generally good natured.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T10:29:00.000-08:00

This is one of several pictures my sister Theresa took of us on Thanksgiving. We are going to use another one for our holiday cards.

My parents hosted Thanksgiving at their house and with all the siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews in attendance, it was a full house! We did potluck and all the food was delicious. Aaron played some games with his cousins and uncles and Audrey was passed around among relatives with almost no complaint, which is pretty good for her.

Early on, Aaron was playing Orchard with his cousin Alex and Uncle Jeff. He apparently tooted without acknowledging it (I was in the other room and found out later). After a few seconds, Jeff asked him what that was. He thought for a second and said "I sat on a duck!" When Jeff was explaining this to me, I didn't understand that Aaron had tooted. I thought Aaron had just claimed to have sat on a duck. So I asked "Did it quack?" and Jeff and Alex quickly said "Ooooooooohh, yeah." And that's when I understood. I think "sat on a duck" is going to become a new euphemism in our house.

Quack Quack

2010-11-21T22:49:00.000-08:00

Aaron make a bird feeder at preschool out of a pine cone, honey and bird seed. It's hanging outside the kitchen window. This morning, while sitting in her high chair, Audrey was looking out the window and pointing. I looked and saw a bird on the pine cone having a snack. She said "quack quack". I guess a duck sound is the only bird sound she knows. She proceeded to quack whenever she saw a bird on the feeder. Once, I looked out and saw a bird so I said "quack quack" and she turned to look out the window at the bird feeder. I wonder what all goes on inside that adorable little head that she can't yet communicate.

Cuddle time

2010-11-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

My cuddly little monkey

I'm ready for my close up

Thom saw a photo opportunity when I was cuddling Audrey this afternoon. But once Audrey saw the camera, she forgot all about me.

Pop goes the balloon

2010-11-21T22:42:00.000-08:00

We went to a family oriented fund raiser event last night. We dressed Aaron in this outfit I bought at Costco last year. It is 4T so I've been waiting for him to grow into it (and for the weather to cool off, which it finally has). He was so handsome.

At the event there was a balloon man making balloon animals for kids. When he came up to us and offered to make Aaron a balloon, I thought he'd ask Aaron what he wanted. Instead, he took out a grey balloon and made him a sword. I'm not a big fan of giving a 3 year old make-believe weapons. We don't even have squirt guns at our house. But the guy was trying to be nice and I let it go. Although Aaron has seen other kids, especially his twin cousins, playing around with swords or light sabers, he proceeded to hold his balloon sword by the blade.

A minute later, he dropped it on the floor. When he went to pick it up, it popped. He burst into tears. I felt awful for him. I remember being afraid of balloons popping when I was a kid. And this one popped right as he was reaching for it, so it was especially traumatic. Thom was carrying Audrey, so I picked him up and we went over to where there was a quartet playing. He sat on my lap and I was swaying with him to the music. He was mostly quiet, but would periodically tell me things like "I don't like skinny balloons. I only like fat balloons." So I could tell he was still getting over the shock. It was his first experience with the skinny, bendable balloons and I suspect he will not be a fan any time soon.

Chore day

2010-11-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

Sunday is chore day. Most weeks we try to pick up the floors and vacuum. Thom usually does the vacuuming and Aaron always loves to watch. We had this yellow stick vacuum in the back of the closet with a telescoping handle. But if you don't pull the handle out, it is the perfect size for Aaron. When he asked to vacuum a year ago, I let him try this one, but invariably he just wanted to watch me do it so I stopped getting it out. But two weekends ago he wanted to vacuum with the yellow vacuum so I tried again and this time he did it all by himself. He does a great job, even making sure to move the cord out of his way. This past Sunday he wanted to vacuum again even though Thom wasn't going to vacuum. So I let him. No sense in discouraging an interest in cleaning up.

Election Day

2010-11-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

"Look Ma! I voted!"

Audrey loves stickers and when she saw mine after I voted early on election day, she pointed and said "Uh uh uh" until I gave it to her. She later pulled it off and put it on her brother.

I love her in these hand-me-down jammies from Aaron. The dark blue brings out the blue in her eyes.

Dr. Audrey

2010-11-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

After Halloween, Aaron's two doctor kits were out in the play area. Audrey took great pleasure in putting both toy stethoscopes around her neck and crawling around with them on. Sometimes she'd come up to me and put the stethoscope up to my chest and then her chest. She really pays attention to how Aaron's toys work and does a great job imitating him.

Halloween

2010-11-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Aaron was a doctor for Halloween this year. I don't believe in buying costumes and I don't know how to sew, so I tried to come up with something I could put together easily. Since he had a doctor's bag and a real, child-size stethoscope (from Lakeshore Learning), all I needed was a white lab coat. Unfortunately Thom didn't have a shirt that worked, but Kim's daughter had a uniform shirt that worked perfectly. I printed out "Dr. Aaron" on a clear mailing label and his costume was complete.

Aunt Lily, Thom's sister, had sent Audrey a Winnie-the-Pooh outfit last year that was for this Halloween and it fit perfectly. Aaron loves Winnie-the-Pooh, so he enjoyed her costume.

I'm not a big fan of giving kids candy, but we did do some trick-or-treating. At noon, I took him up to the local Trader Joe's shopping center where the stores were giving out candy for trick-or-treaters. Most of the kids were in store-bought costumes of superheroes and princesses and he got a lot of attention for his doctor costume. Several people called out "What's up, doc?" as we walked along, and one woman in the grocery store asked Aaron to check her heart.

After dinner we hit 9 neighbor's houses. He enjoyed trick-or-treating a little more than last year. But unlike last year, this time he knew what candy was and he knew he wanted it. I still managed to give away most of it and the rest we put in a candy bowl on the kitchen table. He was allowed one treat after dinner each night. One neighbor we knew well had given out baggies of home made cookies which he wanted the first night. In addition to candy, he also got some Goldfish and Utz pretzels (in Halloween shapes) and he enjoyed those treats just as much, choosing Goldfish over candy one night. After a week, I put the candy in the cupboard and he forgot about it for several days.

When he does have a sugary treat after dinner, he gets hyper. It's a myth that sugar doesn't make kids hyper and I don't need any more of it than necessary. So we allow him some treats, enough that it's not something forbidden and therefore more desirable. But we keep it to a minimum and make it something special.

Babysitter

2010-11-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago, Aaron was sitting at the dining room table playing preschool games. It was getting close to dinner time and he told me he wanted Audrey to play with his castle (a series of stacking boxes painted to look like a castle) and his kitchen (the play kitchen which we constantly have to stress is everyone's kitchen, not his kitchen because he never wants her to play with it). I was pleased to hear him sound so willing to share. He said he would watch her while I made dinner. He'd be the babysitter, he said.

Wow, that warmed my heart. It's always hard to make dinner because I can't leave them alone together. I have to put her in her highchair where I can keep an eye on her. And even then, if Aaron is not otherwise occupied, he keeps getting in her face and I have to try to keep a sharp eye on them while cooking so he doesn't hurt her. So if he were willing to play nicely with her while I cooked, that would really be something!

Well, it lasted for about a minute. She started playing with his kitchen and he got down from the table to come play with her. Then she reached for the timer on the table next to his kitchen. The timer for goodness sake! His precious timer that is counting down the hours until the "soup" in his oven is done. (It used to be my kitchen timer, but I've let go.) Well, he couldn't have her playing with that. Then he'd never know when the soup was done. So he went from loving brother/babysitter, to pushing her down as she reached for his timer. C'est la vie.

Tantrums that make me laugh

2010-10-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

Aaron's tantrums get more sophisticated as he gets older. Don't get me wrong, he does still scream, throw and hit when he's mad, but he is getting better about using words.

Last weekend, I took Aaron to a Health and Safety Expo at the park. (Sounds boring, I know, but there was a bouncy house and the various booths on health and safety had lots of fun stuff for kids.) Aaron was in a mood. He didn't want to do anything, especially not walk. I carried him a little bit but then put him down. He whined and cried. He said he was scared. Worried that he might be scared by the loud music or the crowd, I asked "What are you afraid of?" He answered "Walking." I laughed, but I did pick him up for a bit.

Finally, he was being so obnoxious while I was trying to check out the booths, I decided it was time to go. As we passed a police car that was parked at the event, I tried to get him out of his funk by calling his attention to it. "Look at the police car, Aaron!" He was uninterested. He said "That's not a police car." I said, "Yes it is. It's a police car." His grumpy response? "No it's not! It's not even a car!"

Joking 101

2010-10-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Aaron learned his first joke at preschool last week.

How do you fix a broken pumpkin?
With a pumpkin patch!

The teacher, Elenah, didn't expect the kids to get it since they are still young, but Kim thinks Aaron did get it. They made up jokes during bath time that day that went like this:

How do you fix a broken house?
With a house patch!

A few days later, he and his Papa made up a joke while getting ready for bed:

What do you call an antelope who can't do anything?
A cantelope!

This morning, I told him the following joke, which plays to his love of numbers:

Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Because 7 8 9.

I explained how 8 can mean ate. He laughed, and then made up the following two jokes:

Whey was 16 afraid of 17?
Because 17 18 19.

Why was negative 6 afraid of negative 7?
Because negative 7 negative 8 negative 9!

I thought those were almost funnier than the original.

Do you know a joke I can share with Aaron? Post it here!

Preschool

2010-10-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

We can't afford preschool for Aaron on top of child care, which I still need for Audrey, so we weren't planning to send Aaron to preschool. But on Thursdays, a wonderful woman named Elenah does a sing-along at a park in the town adjacent to us. She plays guitar, brings song lists for everyone, and a big box of instruments for the kids.

Her younger daughter is Aaron's age and she can't afford preschool for her either. So she organized a one hour preschool in the park and invited the kids from the sing-along. Kim was interested in taking Aaron (it is the hour before the sing-along, on a morning that Kim works), so I signed Aaron up. It is free and siblings are welcome, so it works great for us. She brings all the supplies with her, including the easel, the floor mats for the kids to sit on, and art supplies (to which we all contributed). She does lessons on numbers, letters, parts of the body and there seems to be a craft project every week.

The first week I went with Aaron to check it out. But Kim has taken him every week since then. When he comes home, he runs back to my office to show me his craft project. I'm grateful for this experience. He's learning to participate in a group, sit still, follow directions, take turns, and all those other useful life skills that can best be taught in a group setting.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

Kim took the kids to a pumpkin patch last Monday. It was just before we had a big rain and it's been wet ever since, so it was good timing. Here are some photos she took with our camera and some from her phone that Thom and I received throughout the morning via e-mail.

My little helper

2010-10-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

I can't sweep up cereal off the floor without Aaron wanting to help. He's even getting good at it and often gets started without any prompting.

Lunchtime with Audrey

2010-10-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

Audrey wanted my quesadilla so I broke off a piece and she proceeded to suck on it for several minutes. She then pulled it out of her mouth and picked it apart without eating any of it. It's a start.

Later, while I was sending this picture (which is from my phone) to Kim, Audrey hammed it up to get my attention.

Driving lessons

2010-10-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

These were taken with my phone while Aaron was playing in my friend's car with her daughter Alara. Alara had been in the driver's seat at first and I encouraged Aaron to get in the back and be the passenger. This was great fun for him and allowed me to talk to my friend for a few more minutes. But when Alara got into the back seat, he wanted her to keep being the driver. I suggested that he get in front and be the driver. He was reluctant at first, saying very earnestly "No, I can't. Not until I'm 16." But we persuaded him that it was OK since it was just pretend (the key was not even in the ignition).

Audrey turns 1!

2010-10-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Just as we didn't for Aaron's first, we didn't have a party for Audrey's birthday. We actually didn't even get her a birthday present since she plays with all of Aaron's baby toys, of which we have plenty. We did celebrate with my parents on my mom's birthday and Audrey did not hesitate to open her mouth for her first bite of cake, despite being a picky eater and rarely trying anything new on the first attempt. Somehow she knew that cake was cake and she wanted her share.

These photos were taken on Audrey's actual birthday. 13 days later, we had her 1 year checkup. She weighed 18 lbs 12 oz (which is the 15th percentile for her age), was 29 inches long (48th percentile) and had a head circumference of 17 1/2 inches (33%). So she is still small for her age, but she is inching up percentile-wise. She used to be in the single-digits.

At 13 months, Audrey has 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom. She says a handful of words, but most are indecipherable, so we don't know how many she really knows. This morning she was pointing to her shoes (which she is quite fascinated with) and saying "sh. sh." Sometimes she says something consistent that sounds vaguely like "brother" but then she won't repeat it for us.

She is a mischievous girl. She gets into things she shouldn't and when I say "Audrey!" she knows she's in trouble and quickly tries to crawl away from whatever she was doing, with a big smile on her face. She loves her big brother and can be happy just watching him do something. Although more often she wants to play with whatever he's playing with and this invariable leads to Aaron getting in a time out for not sharing (and often pushing or hitting his sister). But they also get along at times and Aaron can be very sweet. As long as she's not touching "his" toys.

These following pictures were taken at the same time as the ones above. Aaron just looked so pensive and serious, I had to take some photos.

Teething

2010-08-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

You can just see the outlines of Audrey's top and bottom teeth here. They are bulging out of the gums and have been for a couple of months, getting bigger and bigger, but never breaking through the gums. Until finally the top right one broke through this weekend. Just a corner at first, and a little more comes through each day. What a slow and painful process for her. I've taken to giving her Tylenol most nights before bed because she wakes up so often and I can only imagine it is the teething pain that is waking her.

Random photos

2010-08-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Aaron driving me around in his "box" car

Audrey discovers keys in my purse

Potty Training

2010-07-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

We are finally making progress!

We first tried to get Aaron sitting on the potty last year. He even managed to pee on the potty one time. But after the initial excitement, he showed no interest in potty training. With Audrey on the way, I thought it might be better just to wait anyway. I'd read that it's not a good idea to potty train within a few months of a major life event, such as a move or a new baby. But after Audrey was a few months old, Kim kept gently suggesting he was ready. We knew he knew when he had to go #2, which is a good sign. And he also went long periods of time with a dry diaper, another sign of readiness.

But whenever I asked if he wanted to go on the potty, he said no. Even when I pointed out older friends of his who used the potty. Even though I pointed out that "big boys" don't wear diapers. But I didn't want to force him even though I believed he could do it if he tried. I didn't want potty training to be something stressful for him.

So I waited. And the truth is, I wasn't ready. Honestly, I don't mind changing diapers. With Aaron, I don't even need to change his diaper when we go out in the morning for a few hours. He only poops at home or at someone's house, so it's easy enough to change him in those cases. The truth is, I didn't want to deal with accidents and rushing to find a potty while we are out and about. Plus Aaron hates public restrooms so I knew it would be stressful for both of us once he was potty trained.

I realized most of my incentive to potty train was coming from feeling like he was supposed to be potty trained by now. I was looking at friends with younger sons who were well on their way to potty training. But then I realized that what other people think doesn't matter. We'd potty train when we were ready. But I did set an internal goal of getting him potty trained by 3 1/2.

Since he wasn't interested in using the potty when we asked, I decided to try another tack. I bought a pack of underwear, which he showed some interest in. Yesterday, Kim, with his consent, put a pair on him after his bath and they went outside to play. She tried to let him practice in the bushes, but he didn't seem that interested. He was outside for over an hour before he had a small accident. He was a little upset and wanted her to take him shorts off right there. But Kim told him it was OK and that they'd go inside and get a fresh pair of underwear and shorts. After that, when he felt the need to pee, they raced to the bathroom. By nap time, he had gotten 3 stickers for peeing on the potty 3 times. By trial and error, he was figuring out when he needed to go. I was out of the house for a few hours, so I got the summary of events from Kim later. She was so excited for Aaron I could hear it in her voice.

After nap time, Larissa was here to babysit. She was just as excited as Kim about Aaron's potty training. There were frequent trips to the potty, some false alarms, some not. And only one accident during dinner.

But the best was yet to come. Aaron hadn't gone #2 before nap, as he often does. He hadn't gone all day. So we knew he'd probably need to go before bedtime. I know that it's common for kids, especially boys, to still want to poop in their diaper so I didn't really expect him to go on the potty. But while I was getting Audrey down to bed, Aaron told Thom he wanted to poop in the potty. It took maybe 10 minutes of sitting before it happened, but it did happen! We were amazed and elated. And he kept going. For 20 minutes. During which time Thom taught him about negative numbers and pronouns (it fit in with their conversation somehow). We told Aaron how proud we were of him. And he said "I'm proud of you Papa. I'm proud of you Mama. I'm proud of my parents."

Our friend Jessica who has a 4 year old said that once they decide to potty train, it happens pretty quickly. I guess she was right. We are amazed with how well he's doing. We are sticking around the house today and probably for the next few days until he gets the hang of it. I'm still not sure how it's going to work when we go out, but I'll probably put a pull-up on him the first few times we go out, just in case. We did put him in a diaper last night, but we'll do a pull-up at nap time today. Assuming it goes OK, we'll do a pull-up again at night.

But I'm not tired...

2010-07-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

Most days Aaron still naps at least 2 hours. Whether he sleeps or not, he has to stay in bed for 2 hours. He has an analog clock in his room and we mark where the hour and minute hands will be when it's time to get up. On Friday he was talking to himself well into nap time and Thom even had to take a few buddies out of his bed for being too noisy. But by the time nap time should have been over, he was quiet. Since we had guests coming for dinner and still needed to do shopping, we peeked in to see if he really was asleep. This is what we found.

Hand-made sweater

2010-07-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

My mom made Aaron this beautiful sweater. It finally fits and he wore it recently on an unseasonably cool day. He's going through a making faces phase which is completely unrelated to the sweater. :)

Horse swing

2010-07-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

We bought this horse swing for Aaron's first birthday. We put it away last year when he grew too big for it. But now Audrey is just the right size so we hung it back up. She loves it.

Cardboard box

2010-07-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Aaron wanted to play with this box that came in the mail. It was a taxi. Audrey enjoyed it, too. But Aaron got frustrated with her for trying to climb out before he found a parking spot.

By far my favorite moment was him drivin his wheelie dinosaur up her back and over her head.

Cruisin'

2010-07-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Audrey has started cruising. She pulls herself to a stand along the gate at the top of the 2 steps down to the living room then moves sideways along the gate. She's still up on her tippy toes and very unsteady. But she does manage to fall back to a sitting position without any fussing.

It's been amazing watching her trying to learn to walk. We have for the most part not encouraged her at all. Sometimes when I'm holding her up, she'll grab my thumbs from under her arms and I'll let her try to walk a little. But we don't encourage her to stand. If anything we discourage it! I'm not ready for her to be running around the house! But she is so determined. There is no stopping her.

I can't help but contrast this with Aaron's journey to walking. At 10 months, he still wasn't crawling. He was rolling around to get from one place to another and couldn't even sit back up from his tummy. By a year, he was doing an army crawl, dragging himself along the floor. By 13 months, we had him in phyical therapy. We taught him to sit back up from being on his belly. We taught him to pull to a stand at the coffee table. We encouraged him to walk with assistance and then on his own. We pushed him every step of the way. I remember each time we taught him a new skill, he picked it up fairly easily. It was like "OK, this is what you want me to do? I can do that." He just never thought to do those things on his own.

I wish sometimes that Audrey didn't think to do all these things on her own! She'll be walking by the time she is a year old, we have little doubt. And the other night after the kids were in bed, Thom says to me "She's not going to stay in her bed. She's just not." He's right. She's not going to be as easy as Aaron. My first thought on the bed issue was that we'll just leave her in her crib as long as possible. But then I realized she'll be one of those kids that is climbing out of her crib by 18 months. Oy vey!

We initially thought we wanted a girl first and then a boy, thinking somehow that would be easier, that the girl would be maternal and enjoy the baby. But I think given their personalities, we had them in the right order.

Uh-oh

2010-07-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

Kim put Audrey in her crib today while getting Aaron ready for his nap. She came back to find her standing at the end of the crib unsteadily. I'm not surprised. She's been trying to get onto her feet as often as possible, even pushing up onto her hands and feet when she doesn't have something high enough to pull up on. Now will come the transition phase where she pulls to a stand and then cries because she can't get back down.

When Aaron was in bed, I said I needed to get Audrey fed and down for her nap. He told me she stands up in her crib. I told him that she would be walking soon and she'd chase him around. He said "And then I'll show her my plants." He's such a sweet boy. I think it's adorable that the first thing he wants to do with her when she can walk is show her his plants in the yard.

She's Trouble with a capital T

2010-07-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Audrey sent from Kim's phone. She's at the park, holding her own sippy cup in her mouth, trying to get her brother's water bottle. She wants everything. She wants it now. And she especially wants it if it is Aaron's. This particular morning he was tolerant, but there is a lot of noise when she goes after his stuff.

Audrey has been eating baby food for about 4 months now. Recently she has started eating Joe's O's (Trader Joe's version of Cheerios). The first time I gave them to her, I think half of one ended up in her mouth out of about 10. The rest went on the floor. She just played with them more than anything. A couple of weeks ago when I tried again, after eating a few O's successfully she got an O stuck on the middle back part of her tongue and couldn't get it over to her gums to mash up. She had a funny look on her face and then looked like she might be choking. I panicked, tried to pick her up, discovered I had buckled her in, quickly unbuckled her, turned her onto her stomach and hit her back. She spit up a little and seemed fine. I doubt an O could have blocked her breathing tube. More likely it just slid down her throat and surprised her. Either way, I was freaked out and didn't give her any more for awhile.

But Kim tried giving her some broken in half last week and she was eating them without problem. Picked them up and put them straight in her mouth. She's finally figured out how it works and she likes them. I've started feeding her O halves, too. It's useful after she's had dinner and we are eating. I plunk her down in the high chair and feed her O halves one at a time. I don't even know if she's hungry - I think she just likes the experience. It keeps her quiet and entertained for a long stretch of time. She is always watching what we are eating and shows a great deal of interest in "real" food. I think she'll be a good eater like her brother.

Phone pics

2010-06-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

When Kim takes the kids out, she sends me pictures from her phone so I can see what they are up to while I'm working. Here are some random photos of the kids out and about.

At the park one day:

Aaron decides to put his hat on Audrey

Brotherly love

She loves to eat tags, especially on her bib during lunch

Enjoying some home grown oranges on the patio

Watering his friendship garden

Playing in the sandbox for the first time in ages

Audrey's first time in the park swing

Allergy testing

2010-06-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

We've suspected Aaron had a nut allergy for awhile. We were pretty sure after he threw up at my sister's house while eating peanut butter pancakes, but we waited until his 3 year checkup to get a referral to an allergist. Our appointment was just this month. We had the option to do a scratch test on his back or a blood test. Since he's never had his blood drawn and the allergist felt that a skin test was safe, we opted for what we thought was the less traumatic option.

After talking to us, she decided to test for peanuts and cashews (the first time he threw up where we thought it was possibly from food was after he had cashews) and some other environmental allergens. I have allergies and he's had eczema, so he's very likely to have allergies.

First, the nurse drew some dots on his back:

Then she did the scratch test. As soon as she did the first one, he started to cry, but he was a brave boy and she was able to quickly finish the test without a problem. I've had this kind of testing done and I know it's a little painful and then itches like crazy. The next picture is immediately after the allergens were applied.

Afterwards, we had to wait 20 minutes to see if he reacted. We played our word game where we take turns saying a word that starts with the letter that the previous word ended with. He was hopping up and down the whole time in excitement. He did try to scratch his back a few times, but we stopped him and kept him distracted. Here's what his back looked like after 20 minutes.

Peanut and cashew are on the far right. He's pretty allergic to both. Which is consistent with what we've seen, but everything I read online sounded like peanut and cashew allergies don't typically go together.

He's also allergic to dust mites, some kind of outdoor mold, and he's mildly allergic to dogs and cats.

The good news about the peanut/cashew allergy is that it makes him vomit. The allergist said when kids throw up the food, it gets it out of their system and that's typically the end of it. But at least one time he didn't throw up the small amount of peanut butter until hours later. So it is possible that he could have an anaphalactic reaction, it's just unlikely. We now have an epi-pen on hand just in case.

She wants to test him again in a year. She says tree and pollen allergies tend to develop later, and given my history with allergies, she seems to expect he will develop more allergies as he gets older.

9 month update

2010-06-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

At Audrey's 9 month checkup, she weighed 16 lbs 12 oz and was 27" long. She is still pretty low in the percentiles (in the teens), but is inching up from where she was at birth (around 5th percentile, I think).

I tried a new pediatrician after losing my patience with the office we've been with since Aaron was born. The doctors at the old place were good, but I was always waiting for the appointment and then waiting afterwards up to 20+ minutes for shots. Plus I had to schedule well child visits months in advance. I like the new place and plan to switch the kids over for good.

Filling in the gap Part II

2010-06-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

More pictures from the blog's black hole.

Thom puts Audrey to sleep (beginning of May)

Audrey outgrows her infant tub and starts bathing with Aaron (mid-May)

Audrey loves to chew on wet washcloths. She is teething like crazy. We can see the outlines of about 6 teeth now, but none have broken through the gums yet. We take the washcloth away once we start to soap them up.

Late May, both kids had colds. Audrey wouldn't sleep. A little TV and chocolate helped.

Audrey wants Thom's Trader Joe's Vintage Cola

Aaron wanted to try on Audrey's sleep sack instead of his pajamas. I managed to zip it up, but his legs were folded up.

Filling in the gap

2010-06-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well aware of the 3 month black hole on the blog, I'm posting some photos from the missing time period. For friends on Facebook, some of these might be familiar. (Posting photos on Facebook is so much easier than putting together a blog entry sometimes.)

Audrey hanging out on the floor circa late March:

Aaron hamming it up for the camera. Can you guess who picked out his outfit?

Audrey helps with the laundry (I needed to set her down while emptying the washer)

Easter egg hunt and Grandma and Grandpa's house

Audrey enjoying a good book early April. She had just recently started to pull her knees under her.

The next day, I found her trying to push up onto hands and knees when she should have been napping.

More to come...

Aaron singing

2010-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

I took this video of Aaron singing and playing the guitar back in May. He had been camera shy, so when I saw him singing for Kim one day, I snuck in with the camera and tried not to draw attention to the fact that I was filming him.

Hi

2010-06-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

Aaron's 3rd Birthday

2010-06-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to throw Aaron a birthday party. We celebrate Aaron's birthday at my family's spring birthday celebration and he gets plenty of gifts from both my family and Thom's so I've been reluctant to have a birthday party for him when I'm already trying to reduce the amount of "stuff" he (and now Audrey) have. But we have a group of friends with kids all around the same age whose birthday parties we love attending, and I know it's awkward to have a party and ask guests NOT to bring presents, so I tried something a little different.

Aaron loves to help Papa in the yard. He has his own watering can and they make their rounds watering various saplings, berry bushes and other plants that are not on the irrigation system. So I decided to have a garden party for Aaron where his friends could bring gifts of plants for his garden. We (meaning Thom) cleared out a spot next to his sandbox which is adjacent to the back patio.

The party was a huge success. His friends and (mostly) their parents planted a variety of plants in his garden and we had metal plant tags for them to decorate. Aaron loves his garden and waters it several times a week. He has a lasting gift from his friends, and it did not add more toys to our overcrowded play area.

Part of my goal for the party was to make it eco-friendly, too. I served finger foods to avoid utensils, and used silverware for the cake, not plastic utensils. And I made Thom track down paper cups for drinks instead of plastic cups, which is apparently no easy feat. I made decorations myself out things I already had on hand. And for favors, I chose reusable fabric bags (from Handmade by SAM Etsy, my new favorite place to shop).

The seller was so great to work with and also came up with these adorable pads of paper that she customized to my theme and made out of recycled paper. She also included extra stickers for the kids to use. The favor bags included these notepads and stickers, ladybug shaped crayons (made from recycled crayons, also from Etsy), Annie's Cheddar Bunnies snack bags and sunflower seeds (for planting).

For the cake, I made a trifle which was super easy and super yummy. I used store bought angel food cake, Trader Joe's instant vanilla pudding, fresh strawberries and homemade whip cream to top it off. So much easier than baking and icing.

To complete our ladybug theme, we released ladybugs in the yard.

I'm grateful to my Dad for taking pictures during the party. I managed to take some before guests arrived and a few during, but most of the photos I have from the party are from my Dad's camera. And all of the videos.

Playpen

2010-06-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

We have the playpen set up in the living room for Audrey. She often cries when we first put her in, but she will go on to spend 20 minutes or so playing in there with her toys. This is great in the morning when we are trying to eat breakfast. She can see through the mesh sides and is happiest when Aaron is playing with his cars on the floor in front of the playpen.

Although we have a gate up in the dining room and can close the pocket door to the kitchen to create a giant playpen in the dining room, we cannot trust Aaron to play with Audrey unattended (meaning one of us sitting right next to them to keep him from crushing his sister or pulling her arm off). So the playpen is one of the safer places we can stick her when we can't be watching her closely. She's not completely safe in there I've caught Aaron poking her face through the mesh and dropping toys into the playpen, but as long as he's playing with something else, we can let our guard down for a bit.

Reading

2010-06-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Aaron starting reading just shy of turning 3. He already knew all his letters and their sounds. In fact, he could tell you what letter a word started with. So Kim, who takes him and Audrey to the library at least once a month, picked up the Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers.

He didn't get a chance to look at the books with Kim, so after his nap that day, I pulled out the first one. He sat with me and sounded out the words! I was so excited. He read the whole thing on his own. Granted, it is very simple: Mat sat. Sam sat. Etc.. But it was his first attempt and I was thrilled.

He read the second book in the series too, then needed some help with the third. Each book is progressively harder. As with most of his library books, he lost interest within a week or two. And he didn't really try to read other books. We didn't push it. He's only 3 and doesn't need to read, but since we are always reading newspapers, magazines and books, and he seemed ready to start reading, we were happy to encourage him.

Last night, when we were reading the board book version of Ten Apples Up On Top (which is abridged), Aaron asked Thom to stop reading at one point so he could try reading that page. He did that for two pages and that was enough for him. Then tonight, he pulled out the hardcover, full version of Ten Apples Up On Top. This time, about 5 pages in, he repeatedly asked Thom "Stop reading please" so that he could try to read about every other page. After sounding out the words, he'd ask Thom to read the words, so each page he read was being read twice. This was taking a long time and Audrey was on my lap and getting fussy, but we didn't want to discourage him. I can picture him reading to Audrey within a year. I ended up taking Audrey to bed before the end of story time. If he wants to start reading his own bedtime stories, we may have to start our bedtime routine a lot earlier.

Photo shoot for Father's Day gift

2010-06-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

My friend Biriz came over late May and took some photos of the kids for me. I wanted to frame some nice photos for Thom for Father's Day and I always love the photos Biriz takes of her girls. She has a better camera and a much better eye than I do. Here are some of the photos she took.

Enjoying an apple from the orchard

2010-06-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

Kim sent this picture from her phone while she and Aaron were playing in the backyard today. Aaron said the apple was "good" and "delicious" and "sweet". It was also one of the few apples without a worm.

Audrey's first word

2010-06-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Audrey started waving yesterday. We thought she was also saying "Hi" but it was hard to tell. Today, I was pretty sure she is saying "Hi" while waving. I caught it a few times in this video (along with Aaron asking politely to be excused after lunch). You have to watch closely though.

Just comparing YouTube embedding - this is the same video.

Helping Papa with the wood pile

2010-03-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, the power went out in the morning. It was still chilly out, so Thom brought some wood up by the house in case we needed a fire to warm the house before the power came back on. We never made the fire, so this weekend, Thom went to put the wood back on the wood pile (since it is unlikely we will need a fire again this season). Aaron wanted to help. For some reason, they don't make work gloves in Aaron's size, but I had found some rubber gripped children's gloves on sale at Target for a buck a few weeks ago, so we tried those out. It wasn't easy getting his little fingers in the fingers of the glove, but they fit pretty well. He was very excited to help Papa.

Headband from Aunt Sherry

2010-03-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Aaron likes to have us put this on Audrey.

Audrey discovers she has feet

2010-03-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

It took 6 months, but my baby girl finally discovered she has feet. Quite fascinating.

6 Month Checkup

2010-03-29T21:20:00.001-07:00

Audrey's 6 month checkup was on the 19th. She was 14 lbs 1oz, hovering around the 25% for weight. But she measured 26 inches, which pushed her up closer to 50% for height. Although the way they measure height (length, really) at this age seems very subjective to me. They lay her on the paper on the exam table, use a pen to mark abover her head, then stretch out a leg and mark under her heel. These marks themselves tend to be inexact, but then they use a paper measuring tape to determine the length and often the marks for the head and below the heel aren't in line, so the measurement is along a diagonal, adding some extra length.

The doctor checked her out and said she looks very healthy. At her size, she said she doesn't need to eat at night and that I should let her cry through a feeding (she has been eating twice between going to bed around 7pm and getting up at 7am which I don't think is extreme at this point). We aren't quite ready for letting her cry it out and maybe it won't be necessary - since I've started giving her solids before bedtime, she seems to be sleeping a little better. Last night she only woke at 1:30am.

She got 4 shots and an oral rotavirus vaccine (not the one being recalled, fortunately). She had a little fever over the weekend from it, but otherwise seemed to weather it just fine. She goes back again at 9 months.

Helpful Aaron

2010-03-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

Aaron loves being outside. He loves his plants. He loves going through the orchard. And he loves helping Papa. These picture are from Monday when he was outside with Kim, but before Thom left for work, Aaron showed Papa how he had picked up some leaves, twigs, and weeds and put them in the yard waste trash can. So Thom got out the little rake for Aaron and showed him how to use it before he left.

The painted watering can was a gift from Thom's mom, back before we even owned our house. It's just the right size for Aaron.

It's nice to see how much he enjoys working outdoors - it fits in nicely with my long term plans of sending him outside on weekends to help Thom in the yard (and get out of my hair). Thom actually does take him outside to do small tasks like pick fruit (a favorite chore of Aaron's), water plants, fill the bird feeder. He can't do major work outside with Aaron, but he does find ways to have Aaron "help" out.

Photos of Audrey

2010-03-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

The top pictures are of Audrey playing with the blanket Great Aunt Glenda made for her. The bottom picture is her first time in the high chair.

A week or two ago, we ordered new chairs for the kitchen table since we just had wooden folding chairs which Aaron has trouble with. We graduated Aaron to the new, big boy, chairs and gave Audrey his high chair after putting the bucket seat and tray table back on. He didn't mind at all. I thought he wouldn't want to give up his favorite chair, but he made the transition like a champ. I bought some seat pads, too, to give him some added height. Aaron likes to play with baby sister when I put her in her seat to make dinner. There are a couple of toys I put on the tray table for her and he helps her with them when she drops them in her lap, or brings them to me to rinse off when they fall on the floor. He's such a good big brother.

Rice Cereal for Audrey

2010-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

Audrey had rice cereal for the first time yesterday. I'm not sure if she liked it or not. Towards the end, she seemed fussy, but Kim thought she was fussing for more since she ate what I gave her.

You can see Aaron's first experience with cereal here.

Coincidentally, they both had rice cereal 10 days before turning 6 months. With Aaron, the recommendation was to start solids at 6 months. With Audrey, they are now saying you can start as young as 4 months. I still decided to wait for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted her to be able to sit up in her high chair. And two, whatever we did with Aaron seemed to work since he's a great eater.

Good Day/Bad Day

2010-02-18T11:31:00.001-08:00

Overall I'm happy with the balance between work and family that I've created by working part-time from home. Some days I feel very competent, like the "super-woman" that all moms feel they are supposed to be. Other days I'm not only sure I'm done having kids, but wondering if I'm capable of dealing with the ones I have.

Here is what a good day looks like:
I wake up before Audrey, grab a shower and some coffee. I play with Aaron, get Audrey up and feed her, have some breakfast and Kim arrives. I clean up the kitchen before starting work. Maybe even throw in a load of laundry. I get a lot of work done, remember to eat lunch before I get too hungry, and Kim gets both kids down for a nap before she leaves. Aaron sleeps until 4pm or later; Audrey naps at least 2 hours (this has only happened 3 times). I continue working while they nap and reach a good break point before Audrey wakes up. I play with Aaron and Audrey after their naps and then Aaron entertains Audrey and/or himself while I prepare dinner. Thom comes home just as dinner is ready. Dinner turns out really good and Thom has 3 helpings. Audrey goes to sleep easily (this has only happened a handful of times) and Aaron is pleasant at bedtime. Both kids are in bed by 8pm and Thom and I have some time to relax in front of the TV. All feels well with the world.

A bad day goes more l like this:
It's not a Kim day. A play date falls through. We find something to do last minute, but we get home late for naptime and Aaron stalls until he has a meltdown from being so tired. Audrey cries while I get Aaron ready for his nap. I'm starving because I forgot to pack a snack. If Audrey does go down for a nap before I get Aaron down, she wakes up as soon as he's down. Otherwise, she takes a short nap. On a really bad day, Aaron doesn't nap at all (very rare fortunately). I hardly get any work done and I'm so exhausted mentally from not having a long enough break from both kids that I have no dinner plan by the time Thom comes home and we end up fending for ourselves after we get Aaron to bed. I try to get Audrey to sleep before Aaron goes to bed, but she perks up every time she hears Aaron's voice, even though her bedroom door is closed. She is so over-tired from not taking any naps longer than 45 minutes that she starts crying inconsolably. Aaron melts down at bedtime and makes matters worse. Thom reads Aaron stories by himself because I'm still trying to get Audrey to bed. I finally get her to sleep after Aaron goes down, only for her to wake up crying while we're trying to eat a very late dinner. We take turns eating and consoling her and the house is finally quiet around 9pm. I'm exhausted and grumpy and resent that Thom gets to leave the house every day by himself.

Learning to count to 100

2010-02-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

This video is probably 6 weeks old. He still can't count to 100 on his own, but the other day I heard him count "29, 30!" instead of "29, 20-10".

Aaron in the bath

2010-02-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

This is a video I took around Christmas time the first time Aaron played with his new bath letters from Kim. I was trying to get him to talk about his new doctor's kit she also gave him, since he loves his doctor's kit. But he was being silly. (The new stethescope is blue.)

Bedtime

2010-02-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

For about a week, maybe 6 weeks ago, Audrey slept through the night. Not just midnight to 5am, which is technically sleeping through the night, but I was sleeping through the night. But she stopped that and started waking up again at night. Sometimes just once, often twice, and on bad nights, she might wake up 3 times, but at least one of those times might be before I go to bed. She's still young and as long as she goes back to sleep between feedings, it's not a problem for me at all.

The worst part was she started having a hard time going down to bed. Maybe 3 weeks ago, I got tired of walking her around and just put her in her crib while I went to get in my pajamas and give my arms a rest. She was awake, but not crying, so I didn't go back to her. She put herself to sleep within about 20-30 minutes. I was excited. I thought we'd reached a turning point and wouldn't have to help her get to sleep anymore.

But it ended up just being that one night. I found myself more and more having to walk her around at bedtime, between 7 and 7:30pm. She'd eventually fall asleep only to wake up again between 8 and 8:30, quickly escalating into full out crying. Thom would try to comfort her but after 10 minutes of her getting more and more upset, I'd give in and nurse her - a habit I don't want to get into.

At the same time, Aaron was having a hard time going to bed, too. After dinner, almost every night, he has to poop. He usually plays at his kitchen and goes. (He says he is making french toast. Thom said he doesn't want any of that french toast.) He has a bunch of bottles and spice containers and he has a routine with his kitchen playing and he wants to finish up before getting ready for bed and didn't like to stop half-way through. But he will also stall big time. It was to the point where he'd be melting down about 75% of the time before bed when we told him it was time for a diaper change and pajamas. He'd say he had "more poop" even though we were pretty sure he didn't. Thom was getting frustrated with him.

Between the two of them, I started to dread bedtime. It was stressful with Audrey crying, with Aaron having meltdowns, or just not listening to Thom when they were getting ready for bed. We tried taking away some of Aaron's bedtime stories - he normally gets 3, but bad behavior would cut that down to 2 or even just 1. At first this was some incentive because he hated to lose a story. After losing one book, he'd usually do much better the next night. But then he'd start whining in the bathroom after doing something he shouldnt' have done: "Want three stories!" Over and over and over.

But then 2 things happened. One day, after a bad bedtime routine with Aaron, I spoke to him after nap time when I changed his diaper. I said that if he sat still like he was with me when Papa changed him at bedtime, Papa would be happy. (One of the issues is that he'd squirm and put his feet on Thom during a poopy diaper change.) Later that evening, Thom and Aaron went to the store and Thom had a talk with him, too. He explained that he doesn't like to get mad at him and that they needed to work together to get ready for bed. So that night went very smoothly. And things started to go better.

But Aaron was still often reluctant to go get ready for bed in the evening. This is where I have Kim to thank. We have a digital kitchen timer. Months ago, it went off for something while Aaron was pooping before nap time and Kim told Aaron it was a timer for him and said "Oh, there's the timer. Time to change your diaper!" And he went willingly. So a few weeks ago, she set it for him intentionally when he was stalling and told me how well it worked. So we started setting the timer at night when Aaron kept saying he had more poop. The timer is MAGIC! The timer goes off, he announces it's time to change his diaper and trots off to the bathroom. Some nights, he even tells us to set the timer. I love the timer. Aaron still acts up during the bathroom routine, but he generally does pretty well. I worry the magic of the timer will wear off, but it's been working for 2 weeks or so.

So then the only issue was Audrey. She kept waking up not long after we got Aaron down and more often than not, I'd end up nursing her to get her back to sleep. I thought she might be teething since she drools so much and is often chewing on her fingers. And she probably is teething, but I don't think that is what wakes her up. I had a breakthrough with her this week. On Thursday, she took 2 naps in the morning of about 45 minutes (her average). Then Kim put her down at 2 right before she left for the day. She stirred at 2:45pm and I was expecting to go get her. She rarely sleeps past 45 minutes, even though she wakes up tired. Generally, in the afternoon, I'd get her, come back to my computer to work, and let her fall asleep in my chest while I worked one-handed. But that day, she didn't wake up. She ended up sleeping until 4:30pm! A daytime record.

That evening, I got her ready for bed around 6:30pm before I fed her. Then I held her on my lap during dinner and jiggled her. She fell asleep at the table, no fussing at all. I put her down in her crib and she slept until 1:30am. I figured it couldn't be coincidence. The way she'd been acting at bedtime was like she was overtired. The long nap seemed to give her the sleep she needed and she was able to go to bed and stay asleep. So on Friday, I stayed in and put Audrey down for 2 naps in the morning and she took a longer nap in the afternoon again. And she went to sleep easily. On Saturday, same thing. She did have a harder time going to sleep last night, but I ended up putting her in bed awake and she put herself to sleep. And stayed asleep.

I don't know if she just turned a corner on the sleep train and can now take longer naps which keeps her from getting overtired. But I suspect that since I or Kim often take her and Aaron out in the morning, she ends up just catnapping in the car and not getting good morning naps since she'd wake up when she got out of the car. So after the experience Thursday, I've made her naps more of a priority. I let her get her first morning nap yesterday before taking her and Aaron to a story time, and then when she fell asleep in the car on the way home, I let her finish her nap in her carseat in her bedroom. Whatever it is, I hope this trend continues. Because for the last 3 nights, bedime hasn't been stressful and it's been nice.

Valentine craft

2010-02-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me Wednesday after nap time to have Aaron make Kim a Valentine card. Thursday is the last day he'd see her before Valentine's, so we didn't have much time. I couldn't find the camera to take a picture of his first Valentine card, so I called my dad to see if I'd left it there (since this is the same day we went to see my parents in the morning). I discovered it was buried in the diaper bag after all. But by then, Aaron wanted to talk to Grandpa, so I got this picture. We actually don't celebrate Valentine's ourselves, but since Aaron likes crafts, it was a good reason to make something for Kim. If I'd planned better, I would have had him make cards for Grandma and Grandpa, too.

On Thursday, I found some heart-shaped cookie cutters and suggested to Kim they could make cut-out cookies, which she thought was a good idea. It was Aaron's first time baking or really even helping in the kitchen. I kind of have hangups about kids in the kitchen. I don't like the mess, I worry about them getting dirty hands on the food, etc. So it was good to see how Kim handled it. She let Aaron taste various ingredients (he likes salt, which seems to be a trait from his father's side of the family) and she let him help way more than I would have. He LOVED it. And he loved eating the cookies later.

Sounds like a planet!

2010-02-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

This is Aaron's new phrase. After dinner earlier this week I talked about what we were going to do after he got down from the table before bedtime. I asked "Does that sound like a plan?" He said "Sounds like a planet!" However, further inquiry did not reveal which planet.

5 months old

2010-02-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

I went to visit my parents on Wednesday, which was Audrey's 5 month birthday. She had a great time with Grandma while Aaron and Grandpa played with the trains.

Audrey, 4 1/2 months

2010-02-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

Kim and aaron were headed out to some outdoor activity and it was chilly out, so I put warm pants and a jacket over her footed jammies. And then Kim covered her with a blanket, too.

Tummy time!

Getting sleepy.

Making a nature collage

2010-02-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago while Audrey was napping, Kim took Aaron for a walk through the back yard to collect items for a nature collage. He carried his little bucket from the sandbox the whole time and enjoyed putting together this collage. Audrey woke up when they came back from collecting and sat outside with them. She seems to like the outdoors like her brother.

Sounds like a plan

2010-01-24T10:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Aaron sat down at the kitchen table and wanted some milk. There were books of the table that he wanted me to read. While he drank milk. He also wanted a bib but there wasn't one of the table. I told him to get a bib from his room. He extended his arm towards his room and whined "No can reach it!" This is a common tactic for when he doesn't want to do something. I told him he had to get down from the table to go get it. He said "Mama do it!"

I refused and he continued to whine and talked about wanting milk and stories. Finally I said "Aaron, look at me." Which he reluctantly did. I said "Why don't you get down from the table, go to your room and get a bib, come back and I will get you some milk and read you a story." He immediately said "Yeah", started to get down from the table, and added "Sounds like a plan."

Learning every day

2010-01-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

Aaron loves to learn new things. I suspect this is common for toddlers, but since this is my first, I don't know what is normal for this age. Aaron practically taught himself the alphabet and his numbers by prefering books that are alphabet or counting based (I have Ten Little Ladybugs and Dr. Seuss' ABC's memorized). And he often stops us mid-book to point out the words he knows or to ask what a specific word is. But other than this self-directed learning, Thom has really taken the lead in teaching Aaron the things that he knows.

I remember when I was pregnant, Thom used to take Aaron on walks in the stroller to get him out of my hair on the weekends. After one of these walks, Aaron came back able to recite his street address. Thom had mentioned prior to this that we should teach Aaron his address in case he were to get lost. I never would have imagined that he could learn his address at age 2. I think I often underestimate what Aaron is capable of because I am often surprised by what Thom is able to teach Aaron with simple games.

For example, he taught Aaron his left hand from his right during breakfast time. Aaron has a bowl of oatmeal every morning. We usually still help him fill up the spoon and then he puts it in his mouth. (Aaron could probably do it all on his own if we wanted to clean up oatmeal off the table and floor every morning.) So Thom would put the spoon on either the left side or the right side and tell Aaron which side it was. Later, he'd ask Aaron "Left or right side?" and Aaron would respond by holding up the hand that he preferred and saying what it was (at which point Thom would correct him if he was wrong.) He still gets his left and right confused, but most of the time, if he is looking for a book on the shelf that I can see, I can direct him to it by telling him it is more to the left or more to the right of where he is looking.

Now that they have mastered left and right, Thom is teaching Aaron time by placing the spoon at twelve o'clock, 3 o'clock, etc.

Aaron now also knows all the sections of the Wall Street Journal (his favorite is the elusive Journal Report that seems to come sporadically). He knows names of plants and trees in the backyard, as well as birds he sees out the window from the kitchen table. Thom has also taught him to say "May I be excused from the table, please?" rather than just saying "All done!" And he could spell both his name and Audrey's name well before he was 2 1/2.

I'm really impressed with how easily Aaron picks stuff up, but also by how easily Thom integrates learning into their daily routine. He seems to see a learning opportunity in everything. Sometimes he'll be explaining something to Aaron in a way that I think is too mature for his age or is too complicated for Aaron to understand. Lately it's been addition and subtraction. But I've learned that Aaron is often more capable than I expect. In fact, he already knows that 100-100=0.

Aaron's First Glueing

2010-01-22T22:21:00.000-08:00

It suddenly dawned on me that Aaron could start doing craft projects. My mom told me how I used to do "glueings" in preschool. So I got out the glue, pulled an empty snack box out of the reclycling and found a 17 bean soup mix I didn't like and some alphabet pasta that Aaron didn't like last year that's been sitting in my pantry. And viola! We have his first glueings. He loved it. Kim did these with him. They were sort of collaborative, but Kim showed him how to use the glue and how to put the beans on the glue. After his nap, he wanted to do more, so I found some more cardboard and we did another one in the afternon (not pictured here).

Post Christmas gifts

2010-01-22T22:03:00.001-08:00

Technically the wagon is from Christmas, we just didn't get it assembled until this month. But the guitar is a gift from Thom. He and Aaron have been playing with Thom's acoustic guitar for at least a year, so Thom decided to get Aaron a child sized guitar. He loves it, although it didn't take long for him to get it out of tune turning the knobs. Now they can play their guitars together. So far Thom is just teaching Aaron how to hold the guitar and how to strum the strings with his thumb. And we are teaching him to be careful with it and not to bang it on the floor. Actual songs will come later. But when there is music on that Aaron likes, he will get out his guitar and "play" along.

I also got him a small djambe drum since he likes Thom's so well. He also plays that along with his favorite songs. I ordered the drum when I ordered the hutch conversion kit for his play kitchen. He loves his kitchen so much and uses it every day, it made sense to invest in the hutch to store his growing collection of empty bottles and spice containers that go with the kitchen now. He loves having the extra shelf space to put things on. Anyway, the hutch wasn't enough to qualify for free shipping, so I got the drum, too. Aaron loves music, so I hope exposing him to instruments at a young age will help get him interested in music lessons later. I'd like him to play at least one instrument.

We didn't really intend to get him so many new toys around Christmas. I like to get new things for him throughout the year to keep him challenged developmentally. But I think shopping for the holidays sort of became a habit and we just couldn't stop. My next plan is to clean out a cabinet for a craft cabinet for Aaron. He has already done his first glueing (to be a future post) and I think he is finally at the age where he can start doing little crafts. I want to get a few staples such as pipe cleaners and tempera paint, but then hopefully most of the crafts at this stage will involve items from around the house and yard. Nature collages, repurposing cans and boxes, making macaroni necklaces, etc.

Where has January gone?

2010-01-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month I took Audrey to the doctor for a cold that was lingering. Kim was here with Aaron. When I came home, I took Audrey out of the car and was about to close the door when I saw a ladybug on the top of the door frame that would have been squished. I carefully scooped it up into my free hand and took it inside for Aaron. He was eating lunch, so I managed to put it into a jar for him. After lunch, he went outside with Kim and she got the ladybug onto his finger. I tried to get a shot from the front that showed the joy on his face, but the ladybug flew away before I could take a picture.

We had two milestones this week, both two days ago. I had Audrey on the floor doing tummy time while Aaron was doing some mazes in his dry-erase maze book (a good pre-writing activity). Before I knew it, she rolled over onto her back for the first time! She even rolled to her side from her back, but couldn't make it all the way back to tummy.

Later I had her in my lap and Aaron voluntarily gave her his stuffed banana and carrot to play with. They are actually age appropriate for her (unlike some of his toys he's tried to give her) and he let her have them while he did his mazes. She even managed to hold the carrot and drool on it. Which he noted, but he didn't freak out about. This was the best sharing he's done so far. Sharing is really hard for him at this age, so I praised him and then told Thom and Kim later while he could hear, again pointing out what a good big brother he is.

4+ months

2010-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

This is Audrey loaded up in the carseat for her 4 month checkup on Friday. She weighed in at 12 lbs 1 oz and was 24" long. I thought she'd weigh more since about 10 days before this, I took her to the doctor for a cold she'd had for almost 2 weeks and she had weighed 12 lbs even. Anyway, she seems to be doing fine.

The pediatrician went over what foods we can introduce and when. I guess we can start her on rice cereal, or oatmeal or barley (just single grains, though) anytime between now and 6 months. Just 2 1/2 years ago when Aaron was at this age we were supposed to breast feed exclusively until 6 months. The recommendations have already changed. And we can introduce wheat and meat sooner, I believe. I have to look at the sheet she gave us in more detail. I don't think Audrey's quite ready for solids yet - I'll wait until she can at least sit upright in a high chair. Which we will need to coax away from Aaron.

Audrey was sleeping through the night for awhile. She nurses sometime between 9:30 and 10:30pm and I put her down in her crib. She stirs around 1-3am, but I can get her back to sleep by patting her, without taking her out of the crib. Then for awhile she was going until 5:30am, 6:30, sometimes 8am. I'd get up with Aaron and Thom and enjoy my coffee first and I'd keep checking on her. But then 3 nights ago, she woke at 4:40, and the last 2 nights it has been 3:40am. She fusses a lot before that and I try to get her back to sleep but she just keeps getting louder until I feed her. I wonder if she could be teething. She has acted like it for awhile now, always chewing on her fingers and drooling a lot. And I think Aaron's first tooth showed up around 4 1/2 months. And I remember teething always disrupted his sleep.

She's mostly outgrown her colic. It got better right around the end of the first 3 months. But she still tends to be fussier in the evenings.

She LOVES her big brother. If Aaron so much as glances in her direction, her face lights up. She watches him and today when I was holding her on my lap, she laughed at her brother when he was being silly. He of course is oblivious, although we are trying to get him to interact with her more. He has asked to hug her a couple of times, but other times when we ask if he wants to hug her, he says she is too little. She is too little for a lot of things.

Long overdue Christmas post

2010-01-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write a long post about our Christmas, but with Thom, Aaron and Audrey sick over the holidays and me being perpetually behind on work, I haven't found the time. And then I didn't want to post new entries on the blog until I did Christmas first. So I'm going to try to get caught up.

We had a live tree again. I like that it is small and easy to decorate and undecorate. I left off the glass ornaments after Aaron broke a couple last year and mostly stuck to non-breakable ornaments. Most of the ornaments have special meaning. There are ones from my mom; one from the first year we had the house, one of a pregnant snowman (when I was pregnant with Aaron), one from Aaron's first Christmas, and now one for Audrey's first Christmas. There are ornaments we've gotten from Aunt Janine every year, ones that my sister Theresa and brother Jeff made in year's past. A pickle from Aunt Sherry.

Aaron really enjoyed his advent calendars this year. My mom gets him one and so does Aunt Janine and Uncle Bruce. We also have a wooden advent calendar house with 25 doors which I put little ornaments behind for a little wooden tree I have. So every morning we opened all three advent calendars (which we had to do in the same order every day, because that is how Aaron is). He still wanted to do advent calendars after Christmas, but he adjusted pretty well when we told him advent was over.

When we opened presents on Christmas morning, Aaron actually enjoyed it, unlike last year when he cried and just wanted to play with his puzzles.

We got him a few things, but not much since we knew he'd get a lot of gifts from aunts and uncles. Our big gift was an all terrain wagon, but after getting Aaron to bed and looking at the assembly instructions at 8:30pm, with Audrey still awake and fussy, I put the wagon back in the box. It had been sitting in the entry way for weeks and sat there until this last Thursday - Aaron never said a word about it. But after Grandpa assembled it on Thursday, he loves playing with it and riding in it. He thinks Grandpa gave it to him!

We got him a preschool game called Orchard in which players compete against a blackbird to get the fruit out of the trees. The players either win together or lose together - you don't compete against each other, which seemed like a good intro to board games. We let him play with the fruit by himself in the morning, so when we took it to my parents' house to play with his cousins, he had some trouble taking turns and following directions from his cousins. But we are working on the whole "game" concept.

Thom got him some Colorforms, like he had when he was a kid. He likes those, but just likes to put the pieces on the board, not actually using them to make pictures. Thom also got him a book called Long Night Moon.

We went to my parents house close to nap time, hoping that Thom and Aaron might lie down for a little nap. I didn't want to put Aaron down for a nap here since we'd have gotten to my parents' house too late. He fell asleep in the car, and wouldn't go back to sleep over there, but he had fun with his cousins.

Since my brother's kids spent Christmas day with their mom, we had another gathering of the family on Sunday after Christmas at our house.

It was nice to see so much of our family. I just wish Thom hadn't been sick the whole time he took off work (between Christmas and New Year's) and that Aaron and Audrey hadn't gotten sick, too. But they are all well now. And the tree is put away, the house is mostly back in order and January is half over. Not sure how that all happened.

Here's looking forward to a great 2010.

I'm dreaming of a dye-free Christmas...

2009-12-24T21:39:00.000-08:00

My nanny's daughter has a sensitivity to red dye (maybe other dyes, too, I can't remember). I had also heard that some people think food colorings are associated with ADD. So I was reading online about food colorings and they really don't sound like something I want to give Aaron when it's unnecessary. Red #40 is derived from coal tar. How is that edible? We already avoid artificial ingredients in our food (and Trader Joe's is great for finding affordable foods with natural ingredients). So my goal this year was to make cut out Christmas cookies (my favorite by far) without food dyes. But since the colored icing is half the fun, I still wanted to give my cookies some color.

With a little help from Google, I discovered several suggestions for making colored icing without artificial food coloring. You can't get as bright of colors using food sources for coloring, but I was still pretty happy with the results.

One my of my strategies was to make snow flakes that wouldn't need color. I sprinkled some sugar on the the wet icing to give them a little shine.

The lavendar color is from blueberry juice - I just put some frozen blueberries in the microwave for 10 seconds or so and used the juice that came out, run through a sieve since blueberry seeds are small.

The raspberry color is from frozen cherries (similar process as for blueberries, but no worry about seeds).

I made a pale pink using beets. That was a more elaborate project that involved boiling beets ahead of time.

And the orange on the star is from using tumeric. I read to use stale tumeric, but mine wasn't old enough so it did impart some of the flavor to the icing. I also experimented with cinammon for brown, but brown icing was kind of weird.

I heard that pomegranate juice would make a good pink, but I was too cheap to buy expensive pomegranate juice and instead bought a pomegranate. But the color was too pale to affect the color of the icing much. I also tried using orange juice instead of (soy) milk in the icing to achieve a pale orange, but it came out looking about the same as the soy milk icing.

For decorations, I used granulated sugar, dried fruit (blueberries, cranberries, yellow raisens) and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds from Trader Joe's. They are colored with natural food coloring (using things like beets, tumeric, spinach juice). I might try some of the health food stores next time to see if they have some kind of sprinkles that use natural colorings.

First snowball and first Santa encounter

2009-12-24T16:47:00.000-08:00

Kim took Aaron to a local attraction that had lights and snow and horse drawn wagons. It was his first experience with snow and he seemed to enjoy it. He doesn't own mittens or gloves since we live in a warm climate, but Kim lent him one of her gloves. (She offered him two, but he would only wear one.)

He also got to roast his own marshmallow, which he enjoyed. It didn't actually get warm since Kim wouldn't let him get close enough to the fire. And she also didn't want to let him hold a stick near other kids for too long.

But his favorite thing seemed to be the horse that was hooked up to the wagon ride. This is by far my favorite picture.

Kim said there was a Santa there. He saw other kids going to see Santa and he wanted to go, too. Since I had said we weren't going to tell Aaron that Santa is real, she texted me to see if that was ok. That was fine with me. He doesn't really understand real/imaginary yet when it comes to characters and I'm not going to keep him away from Santa if he wants to go. So they stood in line for some time, all the while he is excited to see Santa. But when they got to the front, he announced "All done!" and instead of going up to see Santa, they kept walking on by and just waved hello to Santa. This is so characteristic of Aaron to me. She texted me what happened afterwards. We thought it was hilarious.

Bath time with letters

2009-12-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

Kim gave Aaron his Christmas present yesterday. She got him these foam letters and numbers which are a big hit with Aaron. Today I used them as an occasion to transition him out of the inflatable tub we've been bathing him in since he was able to sit up. He was outgrowing it, but I wasn't in a hurry to put him straight in the big tub since it takes more water and now I'll have to clean it! He used to enjoy dumping the water out of the little tub into the big tub at the end of bath time, one cupful at a time, but he didn't seem to miss it. In fact, I had to coax him out of the bath despite the water having grown cold and his fingers and toes turned to prunes. This boy loves his letters and numbers.

Holiday Photos

2009-12-12T18:19:00.000-08:00

Last year we didn't get our holiday cards out at all. I think it was due to procrastination on getting a picture taken and a business trip I took early December. Oh, and the huge contract job I had just started in November.

Anyway, this year, I wanted to do a picture again, like we did 2 years ago with Aaron. It was harder to coordinate with 2 kids. Thom and I did a photo shoot in Aaron's room one Sunday, but I wasn't happy with the way the sun was shining a bright spot on the left side of the shots. So Monday, when Kim was here to help, I did some more photos in our bedroom. We ended up choosing a photo from the first day. Below are some of the photos from the 2 photo shoots, roughly in order. The ones with all the bows out is when Kim was helping me keep Aaron entertained. We did get out a few bows the first day, but not quite as many. I didn't include the one for our holiday cards - you'll have to wait to see that one when you get it.

By the way, the Christmas tree we used in the photo shoots was made by my brother Jim. Last year, he picked me in our family gift exchange and it was a year we had agreed to do homemade gifts. We don't do that every year, but when we do, people make some very cool presents. Aaron loves this tree, although I have to keep it out of reach so he doesn't pull out the pins holding the ornaments on.

Long overdue photos of Aaron's trip to the pumpkin patch

2009-12-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

Way back in October, Kim took Aaron to a pumpkin patch. It was his first time to a pumpkin patch and he loved it! I gave her a $10 budget (hay ride, corn maze, petting zoo - all were $2-3 each) and let her pick what to do. They went on a hay ride and bought corn to feed the animals.

3 Month Update

2009-12-12T15:53:00.000-08:00

You can tell by my lack of posts in the last month that I've been busy. It has definitely been a challenge juggling two little ones, work, and house keeping. Updating the blog has been on my mind, but is a lower priority right now. Also, being connected to so many friends and family on Facebook makes it easy to share photos and news there rather than here. (So if you aren't on Facebook and want to see new pictures more often, sign up and find me! Yes, Thom's family, I mean you.)

It's hard to believe Audrey is already 3 months. She is growing so fast and time is flying by. She is smiling more and more, as you can see in her post-bath picture above. And in the pictures below, I tried to catch her smiles on camera as we played with a toy mirror that she seems to enjoy as much as her brother did.

We continue to find that the second baby is easier. So much less stressful which allows us to enjoy her more.

But Audrey is also a little more challenging than Aaron is some respects. She has reflux and also seems to be sensitive to things in my diet, sometimes getting painful gas. I eliminated dairy 2 months ago, but do have a little here and there, mostly butter in baked goods and lately I've had a little eggnog in my coffee. I've started to suspect that she is sensitive to something else though, maybe eggs, after she has been very fussy on days that I've not had any dairy. So I've started to keep a food diary, along with noting the times I feed her and any symptoms out of the ordinary. I couldn't stand eggs while I was pregnant and only recently have been eating them again now that my appetite is returning. So it almost would make sense if she had a sensitivity to eggs, not having much exposure to them in the womb.

I'm not sure how much my diet affects the reflux. Aaron used to spit up quite a bit, but with Audrey, I've noticed that if I set her down too soon after a feeding, even in her bouncy seat which has a slight incline, she'll wake up struggling and sounding gurgley. And sometimes she'll spit up 1-2 hours after eating, which I've read can be a sign of reflux. I mentioned it at her 2 month check up, and the doctor agreed that it sounds like reflux, but since she's gaining weight, they don't treat it. Although she did recommend giving her some cooled chamomile tea in a bottle. She should outgrow the reflux and any food sensitivities in time.

Like Aaron, Audrey has had a fussy time in the evenings, which they like to call colic, meaning "fussiness we can't explain". We've spent many an hour walking her around, which is sometimes the only way to quiet her - and even then, it doesn't always work. But I've noticed in the past week or so that she is doing better in the evenings. And 3 months is supposedly the magic age when they start to outgrow colic, so maybe we are over the worst of it.

The other minor challenges with Audrey, aside from reflux and food sensitivity, is her refusal to be swaddled or take a pacifier. Aaron didn't like to be swaddled at first, but we persisted and as I recall, he only ever struggled when we were swaddling him. Once he was restrained, he calmed down and he slept better and longer. Audrey doesn't struggle when we swaddle her, but even if she is initially calm, she won't go to sleep. She will just struggle and struggle to get her arms out, grunting and crying if she can't. So I've given up. I wrap her in a blanket with her arms out.

Aaron also didn't take a pacifier at first and I almost gave up. I waited until he was 4-5 weeks old to make sure it didn't interfere with breastfeeding. It was my mom who finally got him to take it. And once he took it from her, I don't remember having a hard time with it after that. But we've attempted to get Audrey to take a pacifier many, many times. Kim got her to take one once and she had it in for an hour or so while she slept. Kim kept tapping on it while it was in her mouth. There have been a handful of times someone has gotten her to suck on a pacifier for a few minutes, but mostly my experience is that she wants to suck on her hand or is rooting despite having just been fed, but when I offer her a pacifier, she'll either chew on it, gag, make a face, or reject it, or all of the above. I've tried at least 5 kinds of pacifiers. I don't remember Aaron ever gagging on one, so maybe she has a stronger gag reflex. My friend Heidi said her first daughter was 3 months old before she took a pacifier, so I still hold out hope. There are definitely times when I think it would be helpful. (Especially in the car. She often cries unless the car is moving. So at stop lights, I'm often tapping the break to keep the car rocking a little. When Aaron was little, I gave him a pacifier in the car and that kept him quiet.)

On the plus side, she is growing well, starting to grow out of her 0-3 month outfits. She is only eating about 7 times a day and is going long stretches at night, usually just eating once sometime between 2-5am. She has already recovered from her first cold (which was a little scary for us since she was only 2 months when she got sick). And now that she is smiling, she is so much fun!

Despite some of the challenges, she is such a little cutie and we are really enjoying her!

Sleeping baby

2009-11-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Audrey fell asleep on her play mat. She was sleeping so peacefully, after a long night of crying until midnight, that I had to snap a picture. I love to see her sleeping.

Planting with Papa

2009-11-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, Thom and Aaron did some planting. Aaron had a little cactus plant he and Kim picked up at a botantical garden and there was a 6 pack of festuca glauca that Thom bought a long time ago and hadn't planted yet. Festuca glauca is a blue grass that is in the seed catalog Aaron still reads.

Below, Aaron shows me where they planted the festuca glauca. Then he removes the leaf that I pointed out on Thom's shirt.

Audrey's 2 month checkup

2009-11-10T11:52:00.001-08:00

Audrey turned 2 months old today! She had a checkup and got her first shots this morning. She is 22" long and she weighed 9.5 lbs, a 2 lb gain since I last weighed her about 4 weeks ago. When I last weighed her, she had gained over 1.5 lbs in 2 weeks, so I was sure she was over 10 lbs today, but apparently her weight gain has slowed down. Not a problem, though, because the pediatrician was very impressed with her weight gain. She showed us the chart of her head circumference, weight and height and for all three measurements, she went from being low on the chart (or off the chart on the low end), to jumping up to 10 or 25th percentiles.

We postponed the Hepatitis B shot for now. It is not something she is going to encounter anytime soon, so we felt safe putting it off until she is older, although it is routinely given to infants as young as in the hospital for some reason. She still got an oral vaccine and 4 shots. She did very well, even better than Aaron did at his first shots. She cried, but she settled down very quickly. Hopefully they don't cause any major reactions over the next 24 hours.

The following are a couple of shots I took this morning in the crib juxtaposed with some shots I took the day we left the hospital. She is in the same outfit so you can see how much she is filling out.

Halloween

2009-11-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

This is the first year we've dressed Aaron up for Halloween. He was a construction worker, although everyone thought he was Bob the Builder. He had a plastic construction hat from his friend Gabe's second birthday party which was my inspiration for his costume. Unfortunately he didn't want to wear the hat so I ended up carrying it or wearing it. I had trouble finding a flannel shirt for the costume until my mom finally found one for us at Kohl's. Some hand-me-down overalls and wood tools from his play workbench completed the costume.

The first three pictures are from home before we did some daytime trick or treating at the Trader Joe's shopping center. He absolutely refused to put the hat on for the photos. The last three photos are from our neighbors' house on Halloween evening.

He seemed to have a good time and enjoyed picking candy from the bowls. But he was a little fussy and didn't want to wear his hat or carrying his bag. I don't think he's ever had candy and fortunately he showed no interest in eating it.

Rocking with Grandma

2009-11-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

My parents have been helping me out with Aaron and Audrey on days I don't have Kim or Thom around to help out. Last Wednesday they came up and Mom rocked Audrey in the glider. When she was trying to get Audrey to take a pacifier, she actually got Audrey to smile! Although she did not get her to take the pacifier. I couldn't quite capture the smile on camera, but here are some photos of Audrey with her grandma.

Watching her Mobile

2009-11-03T10:53:00.000-08:00

Clean from a bath, I set Audrey in her crib to watch her mobile.

Sleeping on Papa's Shoulder

2009-11-03T10:52:00.001-08:00

After a bath

2009-11-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

I noticed after a bath that Audrey's hair curled up a little. I wonder if it will be curly like Aaron's when she is older. Most of the time it looks straight.

One month birthday

2009-11-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

For contrast, the last photo is from the day we left the hospital.

Aaron Joins Audrey for Tummy

2009-11-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from about a month ago. Audrey has already outgrown that outfit.

Try Again

2009-10-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Aaron likes things to go the way he expects. If he's trying to do something and he falls or drops something, he gets very upset. He wants things to go according to his plan. And he doesn't like the unexpected.

For example, one day we were playing in his room. I was sitting on his bed. He was bringing something to me from the closet. He was running and he fell just shy of the bed. He didn't get hurt, but he was upset. But he picked himself up, and instead of giving me what he had in his hand, he returned to the closet, said "Try again" and ran back over to me, without falling. When he did this successfully, he said "No fall!"

I think this is because when he does get upset about something going wrong, we'll tell him that it's OK, that he can try again. So the message is sinking in. Sinking in so well, that when I did something "wrong" he had me try again.

We were reading bedtime stories the other night. I was reading Caps for Sale. On the first page, after reading "He carried them on top of his head" I patted Aaron's head. He wasn't expecting that and it bothered him. He pushed my hand away and said "No Aaron!", meaning "Don't touch Aaron's head." And he rubbed his head to make his point. Then he reached out, closed the book and said "Try again. No Aaron." Meaning "Try it again, Mom, but don't touch my head this time."

Thom and I cracked up. That wasn't the first time I've annoyed him by doing something he hadn't wanted me to do, but it was the first time I was given a chance to do it over.

No fan of Car Talk

2009-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

I've never been a big fan of Car Talk. I'm sure I rolled my eyes and groaned many times when driving around with my dad on weekends growing up and he put it on the radio. And now I'm married to a Car Talk fan. And I still roll my eyes and groan when he puts it on in the car. Although I admit that Click and Clack are funny. I just prefer music.

But if there is one part of their show that I like, it's the Puzzler. Thom heard it on the radio last weekend when he was out with Aaron and relayed it to me. It was an interesting one (read it here) that involved coming up with the model of a car. So over the week, I would look at car model names when I was out driving and I finally figured it out on Wednesday when I drove down to see my folks. So I submitted my answer online, a first for me.

So for the first time ever, I actually looked forward to Car Talk this weekend so I could hear the solution on air. (You have to e-mail them if you hear your name announced as the winner, so I had to listen, I couldn't just wait to be notified if I won.) But this morning, I nearly forgot. We were driving down to the farmer's market around 10:20 when I suddenly remembered. I turned off the Ingrid Michaelson CD that was playing and tuned into KPBS. Sure enough, Car Talk was on air.

Aaron, who loves music, whined from the back "Ingrid Michaelson." (Which was funny since when we first got in the car, he wanted to listen to a kid's CD we have, but I insisted on Ingrid Michaelson. But I guess he figured Ingrid is still better than talk radio.) But he quickly adapted and quieted down for the remainder of the drive to the market.

Unfortunately, it is a pledge weekend, and the show was interrupted by requests for donations. So we sat in the car after parking, hoping to hear the Puzzler solution. Aaron quiped from the back "Music off", indicating that we should turn off the music (and get out of the car). I said it wasn't music, it was Car Talk. I said "Can you say 'car talk'?" And he said "Car Talk off". Funny boy.

Eventually we gave up and went to the farmer's market without hearing the solution (and winner). But when we got home, I looked online for today's show. I found it and clicked to play the segment with the Puzzler answer. Aaron was playing on the floor. A few minutes into it (after I heard that I did indeed have the correct solution, but wasn't chosen as the winner), Aaron turns around, looks at me and says "Car Talk off". I guess he recognized the voices of Click and Clack. Smart boy. And so far his taste follows mine - not a fan of Car Talk. But given his genes (having a father and a grandfather who like Car Talk), I'm sure he will come around. Especially given that he was playing with cars at the time.

Random photos from Audrey's first weeks

2009-10-15T16:37:00.001-07:00

After a feeding

Chilling in the bouncy seat

Will not keep her hands in a swaddle